The Search for Truth

 

When we are born, even though with an innate personality, we are still a blank slate that time and experiences help develop. In my case I spent my formative years in a rural setting such that I was bussed to school from kindergarten through to grade 13. While there were several other kids in our location the same age as my younger brother there were none my age. As a result, I developed an independence and reliance on self.

One formative event was when I was exploring in the bush out behind our home and got disoriented. As panic was beginning to settle in, I heard a train. Soon after I heard a transport on the highway. Now that I had a sense of location, I soon extricated myself from my predicament and ever since always maintain an awareness of my location and have never been lost since.

Another was in Grade 5 when we all had to do Public Speaking which involved a 3-minute presentation assisted only with some cards with key prompts. I spent much time and effort, especially since I was rather insecure about my abilities to memorise the presentation. I gave my speech and rarely, if at all had need to refer to my cards. Then was humiliated for what seemed like an eternity as my teacher criticized virtually everything I had said and done, aided by my classmates who in their innocence just went with the flow. While that scarred me for a long time it opened another door in that I became a particularly good listener, even if I rarely would get the courage to speak up in fear of being criticized.

I also became an avid reader, whether it be books or magazines. Because of this hobby I have squirrelled away an abundance of trivia such that when in High School I did well with the “Reach For The Top” club. Here we are many decades later and the one book from my youth that is seldom out of my thoughts is “1984” by George Orwell.

Key aspects of the book are the concepts of “doublethink” and “newspeak” that involve accepting two mutually contradictory thoughts as correct; “war is peace”, “freedom is slavery” and “ignorance is strength”. And we see that all around us more and more as time has gone on, especially in the last couple of decades. To the point that outright lies are now accepted as truth.

You may find that difficult to believe, but it is part of human nature to spend more time on emotional reaction and as little as possible on actual thinking. We are all aware of the folk tale “Chicken Little”. While its origins date back at least a couple of centuries it documents the point I wish to make. [Insert perceived catastrophe] is fervently expressed by Chicken Little (choose your speaker of doom) and in the ensuing panic accept as fact by all around you, except for Foxy Loxy (choose those who have the most to gain at the detriment of the others by taking advantage of the mass hysteria).

I have written before about Propaganda and how it is designed to deceive for ulterior motives. But human nature as pointed out can produce the same result, the madness of crowds. The ultimate expression of “peer pressure” where the only motivation for blindly following is “everyone else is doing or saying it”. A suggestion for those of you who have read this far – be sceptical of everything you see or hear unless there is compelling evidence to support it. For example, if someone says something like “a consensus of scientists say …”, that is a red flag that it is false as science is based on scepticism, not consensus. Science greats such as Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Einstein, Darwin and so many more all share the common trait that none of them accepted the “consensus” of the time. All asked questions and pushed back on what was generally accepted. We all should push back on any thought or idea that the only supporting “evidence” presented are mindless phrases that try to do nothing but elicit emotion when actual thought is required. In fact, the easy way to identify the Foxy Loxy’s of the world who have ulterior motives is to watch for the use of meaningless phrases. Even ones like “follow the science” yet provide no scientific data as that is the very foundation of “science”!

If the last sentence generated a question such as “who are you to say what is science”, then good for you! That is warranted push back. And the answer is that I have an Honours Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degrees and have been a practising scientist for most of my life. As I like to tell people, I am a jack of all trades, but a Master of one and I have the paper to prove it. But most importantly the best lesson I learned from my university days was to be skeptical. I strongly encourage you to do so too, especially now when so many are doing as Orwell predicted and are trying to enslave us yet calling that “freedom” and doing so by telling us lies yet making you think it is truth.

All searchers for Truth push back. If you value freedom it is about time more of us do that before it is too late.