In Search of Truth

With so much talk about fake news these days, and the explosion of information provided by the internet, it is forgivable to be somewhat confused as to what is true and what is not. Most people don’t have the time to research issues for themselves and rely on the traditional mainstream media as their source of information for what’s happening in the world.

They say ‘you can’t trust what you read on the internet’. Well, I would say that’s only half-right. I prefer, ‘you can’t trust anything you read anywhere’. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make sense of the world. It is simply a matter of clear thinking and perspective.

Let us first examine this new ‘post-truth’ paradigm we face, and see how we came to this point. Once we understand the root of the problem, then we can approach the world with a fresh perspective and see clearly what is true and what is not.

Fake news

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” - from 1984, by George Orwell

There was a time when the alternative media coined the phrase ‘fake news’ to describe specific news articles in the mainstream media which had been shown to be untrue. With the abundance of declassified documents, whistle-blowers and leaked insider information on the internet there were a large number of ‘truth seekers’ doing in-depth research into the validity of mainstream news reports and I would regularly do a search for ‘fake news’ to read the latest revelations.

Then one day it changed. I typed in ‘BBC fake news’ expecting the usual list of articles about the various biased and lying reports from the BBC. Instead, all I could find were references to a blog article on the BBC website about fake news. The mainstream media had co-opted the phrase ‘fake news’ and have ever since applied it to the alternative press, completely reversing the former reality, Not only that, but they now use it as an excuse for censorship.

Google have now refined their search algorithms so they can now promote what they like and disappear what they don’t like, and social media giants now openly censor anything that contradicts the officially approved ‘truth’. As governments and corporations develop a stronger and stronger control over the internet we are facing a truly Orwellian situation where facts are changed from day to day, altering the official reality according to the whims of the establishment.

The Info Wars

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false" - CIA Director William Casey to President Reagan (re Barbara Honegger)

According to the Church Committee of 1975, the CIA had a network of operatives across the different branches of media from the early 1950s onwards. If they wanted to manipulate public opinion they could do so, inserting carefully crafted propaganda into the daily news.

Of course, it’s not just the CIA. The war to win over minds is an ongoing battle between all the forces of ‘military intelligence’. That’s why the first victim of war is the truth. Before a war begins the support of the people is required; so a whole host of reasons are given for the need for war (weapons of mass destruction anyone?), and the leader of the enemy is always denounced as a ‘monster who is killing his own people’. A sure give away that his country will soon be attacked.

The makers of propaganda know how to play with our emotions, using images of suffering, often the suffering of children as this creates the strongest emotional response. They provide us with the culprit, the one to be blamed and hated for all this human distress. We believe the story presented to us, little knowing it is complete fiction, no different to a movie or even a cartoon. But the warmongers have the reaction they need as the public demand, ‘Something must be done!’.

The Post-Truth World

‘It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true’ (possible quote from Paul Watson, Greenpeace activist)

We are told it is now the era of ‘post-truth’. What does this mean exactly? Information that is censored from internet is not censored because it is untrue, but for other reasons - ‘hate speech’ incitement to violence’ ‘offensive to a minority group’ etc. Similarly, the information that is allowed is not necessarily true, but it does conform to the permitted societal parameters. The algorithms that determine what must be censored on social media don’t care about the truth, but rather they are created to direct and influence how people think. God forbid that we should offend anyone with the truth!

Another Brick in the Wall

‘Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted’ - Vladimir Lenin

We begin life naturally inquisitive about the world and full of questions, which is how children learn new things. At school however, we are soon discouraged from asking questions by the overworked tutors who don’t have time to answer questions and so we learn to accept what we are told without questioning. This process intensifies through school as students have onboard vast amounts of information to cram towards examinations and so on to university.

The outcome is that the most important lesson our education has taught us is to accept what we are told by authority figures as the truth, without question. Where the authority figure in school is the teacher, this is replaced in adult life by TV, newspapers, scientists and academics. It becomes so ingrained in our behaviour that we don’t ever think to question the stories in the media, or seek to validate for ourselves the ‘facts’ behind the latest pressing issue promoted by government-sponsored scientists.

And so our natural, open minds are moulded to conform to society’s conditioning. We have been through a form of brainwashing that dulls the understanding of the nature of truth, and makes us forget how to determine what is true. The school years are also an opportunity for the state to insert concepts into our minds, which then colour our thinking our whole lives, according to the wishes of the powers that be, which differ somewhat from country to country. Until deprogrammed, we will swear that these concepts are the truth, even when evidence, logic and common sense says they are not.

Chinese Whispers

Chinese whispers is where a message is whispered from one person to the next, going round a group of people, and then spoken out loud by the last person. The message has usually totally transformed by the time the last person in the group receives it, to the hilarity of all concerned.

And so it is with published information: To find the truth behind a report or article, you must first find the original source of the information, which might lead back through a maze of commentaries before you get to the original author. Then you can examine the evidence provided by the original author and judge accordingly. Of course, if there are no sources cited, it makes such research more difficult, and is an early indication that the information is suspect. Without the original source for the information it is simply hearsay, no better than gossip.

Truth requires evidence, without this it can only be a guess at the truth. Supposition, theories, ideas and speculation are not facts, they are possible truths. Einstein’s theory of relativity is not a truth, it is a possible truth. Similarly, you cannot assume anything when trying to find the truth as this exposes your search to the possibility of error.

Some Rules of Truth Seeking

A few guidelines for researchers who seek the truth (incomplete, suggestions welcome):

• Even what appears the least likely, may yet prove to be the truth. Conversely, even the most deeply held and popular belief could be false.
• As humans we do not have infinite knowledge, nor perfect understanding, so remain open to the possibility that anything you already believe, or think you know, could be false.
• Be humble and respectful of other people’s opinions, after all, our own experience is less than a single lifetime. In this way, we maintain the ability to adjust our way of thinking.
• Assumptions do not lead to the truth.
• Examine the evidence first, then judge the theory.
• Truth requires evidence.
• Information requires the original source to be validated.

May you all find the truths you seek, Shifting Sands.