The Writing On The Ceiling

An essay on truth

Truth.

Truth begins as something to be sought. In math and science, we seek the truth of nature. In literature and art, we seek the truth of human nature. Our desire for truth is as innate as our desires for food and sex; nothing motivates us more than the desire to uncover the truth, to satiate our sometimes dangerous curiosity.

However, in this day and age, what we consider to be truth is not truth, but a perversion, a shell, an abomination that parades itself as such. The modern version of truth is only a limited, “good enough” version of truth, lacking the absolute and self-affirming qualities of, well, true truth. The problem lies in the heuristics that we use and the fact that we use heuristics in the first place.

There is a vast difference between what truth currently is and what truth should be. Before we begin to think for ourselves, we are bombarded with realities seen through others’ filters of perception. Prior to learning that there is no such thing as a right answer in life, children look towards individuals whom they trust to consistently make correct judgments. This dependence is a natural stage in an individual’s intellectual development, but it also renders them vulnerable and exploitable and thus it must be swiftly shed. Such “truth” comes from a series of indirect and expedited judgments. In exploring the truth, the question people often find themselves asking is not “Is it true or not?” but rather “Who do I trust to tell the truth?” In such a scenario, truth becomes a matter of trust, character judgments of who is worthy of that trust and who is not. These are but imprecise, indirect attempts to see the truth.

“Truth” is susceptible to distractions, boldfaced headlines, un-credible sources, and biases. It is, in a way, a form of intellectual laziness to leave one’s personal exploration of truth in the hands of another. The primary reason anyone would do so, I suspect, comes from the naive assumption that such a weakness would never be exploited. And yet, the government has done so. Over and over and over again. And over and over and over again, we continue to trust the government. However, when one institution breaks a person’s trust, they often seek out a new institution to trust. And so we see the mistake many tinfoil-hat-donning conspiracy theorists make: they believe they have escaped one trap only to find themselves in the same pitfall by shifting their complete reliance on mainstream media to complete reliance on alternative media. It is still possible to believe that one has expanded their intellectual breadth beyond that external reliance on others, but never having truly learned that lesson.

This brings me to my final point: what is truth, really? What is it about the current way truth is handled that prevents us from attaining true truth? No one can pinpoint for certain how to define truth; philosophy provides us dozens of interpretations of truth to pick and choose from. Thus I can only offer an idea of what truth should be in contrast with what it currently is:

Truth should begin from an intimate, direct experience, guided by the unquenchable thirst of curiosity and tempered by humility. Truth should be a constantly evolving, malleable set of beliefs, ready to receive and assimilate new information. Truth is only truth when one no longer has to rely on external sources for it. Truth transcends ego, communicates respect, and comes not from arrogance but from compassion, empathy, and a shared sense of equality.

With that in mind, I invite you to begin to think consciously about the way you decide your own truths. Do not rely on others to tell you that France exists but rather physically travel across the Atlantic Ocean to where “France”’s geographic location is purported to be and see for yourself. When someone tells you that “gullible” is written on the ceiling, allow for self-doubt. One day someone might actually scrawl “gullible” on the ceiling. And you’ll be the unprepared one, never looking out of fear of making the mistake of appearing gullible.

The writing is on the ceiling. But will you be the one who looks?