Truly True Truth (and Fake, False Fiction)
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
“When everything is easy one quickly gets stupid.”
~ Maxim Gorky
Everything you believe is true. Always. Which is weird, isn’t it? How can what each of us know really be true? Isn’t there only one truth? How can we all be right?
If something isn’t true, you can’t believe it. No one can believe in something false. Something that is impossible for you to comprehend or reconcile can never be true, therefore what you know is always true.
And that’s what makes learning so important and so valuable – to shed the transitory and temporal truths that you once held for the Ultimate Truth and sift your way down to the Truly True Truth…if that is even possible.
Sure, we can know a lot, but isn’t the Ultimate Truth knowing Everything? Maybe, someday, I’ll get there, but for now, I’ll settle for whatever I can narrow down to as the Truly True Truth, and we’ll see how it goes from there.
So, what is learning? Sure, there are some scientific ways of explaining synapse and brain chemistry and what-not, but when it comes down to it, learning is simply being confronted with the new (or ‘as yet unknown’) information, circumstances, feelings, ideas, etc., and comparing it against what is already known.
Does this new information easily fit into what I know to be correct and reasonable, or is this something that I can dismiss because it doesn’t fit at all, OR do I have to investigate further to discover the finer points of this information to really know for sure whether it might fit into the puzzle of possibilities and be, as abstract and as far away as it may seem at the moment, a logical explanation or resolution of the issue at hand.
Most people would prefer that everything to fit into the simple boxes of True or Untrue…but things don’t always work that way.
Unfortunately, intellectual laziness caused by generations of people being spoon-fed easy-to-swallow ideas from the hypnotic glowing screen has reduced nuanced issues that tend to have an overlapping of ‘true’ and ‘false’ elements to them into either ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but that’s a big mistake. Life isn’t necessarily that easy.
As the Kyballion (among other great books) teaches us, there is a polarity in all things.
Love and hate, for example, are extreme ends of a single pole. There are not opposites, but merely degrees of the same idea or concept (or emotion, as the case may be). But bend that pole into a circle and tell me what you get.
Are they really opposites, or are they very nearly the same exact thing, separated only by the finest of subjective discernment? Now we find both Love and Hate on the ‘extreme’ side of the circle; yet across the way there is a beautiful blending of them with a healthy, hearty spot right in between that is appealing to each of the extremes because it represents the logical reality of their extreme actually flourishing into its fullness - but it requires the extremes to produce the lush, beautiful middle - and so neither extreme can partake of its fruits.
That’s why a ‘well-rounded’ person is so often more attractive than the extremists because from the outset, you can ascertain that a wider swath of information has been sifted through to come to the conclusion that all perspectives have their value and proper place in the order of things - whereas the extremist will admit to nothing short of extremities as the solution to any issue.
And, hence, we have religious and political zealots who insist all must covert or die; a world at war over the value of human rights as the War Machine continues to murder humans who apparently have less a right to be human than others and therefore can become non-human with a few well-placed bombs, bullets, or other less dramatic forms of death and elimination.
Somehow, there is no voice in the media that insists that death is no longer the solution to conflicts. I see that no major figure, no man or woman, has the courage to stand for the End of War by actually proclaiming that the murder of fellow humans does not lead to peace. Hmmm...
Who knew that society, with all of its ‘know-how,’ ‘innovation,’ and ‘technological advances’ would evolve into the same old, brutal killing machine that defined all of the ‘unenlightened’ ages of Mankind? What good are our advances if we can’t get past savage violence as the default solution to our differences? As the Tragically Hip say, “Nothing’s changed anyway, or anytime, too.”* But I digress...
New information is the most vital element in personal growth. This information may come through a variety of sources such seeing, hearing, touching, feeling, reading, etc., but there are many who, instead of prioritizing what they have truly, really, and actually experienced throughout their physical, spiritual, and emotional lives, will let some asshole on TV or the internet override what they truly know to be reality according to their actual real lives. They readily submit themselves to another’s point of view and then adopt it as their own despite having any rationale for doing so other than not knowing how to think about a topic, subject, idea, or theory with their own cognitive resources.
Some people would much rather be told what to believe, how to think and how to feel instead of doing the hard work of crunching the facts before them. It’s just too hard, too much work.
In the 1928 book ‘Propaganda,’ Edward Bernays writes that we, the public at large, have “voluntarily agreed to let an invisible government sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issue so that our field of choices shall be narrowed to practical proportions.” And this, of course, is the state we are in today and have been for a long, long time. The vast majority of people don’t want to think for themselves and so there are plenty of propagandists that will do the thinking for us. They narrow our choices down to ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ and then let us ‘decide’ which way we lean – either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but nothing in between.
And so it is that the intellectually lazy, stubborn and comfortable (which is a LOT of people) fold their arms and dig their heels in with proud indignation when they are confronted with new information, and they say, “I don’t want to be challenged, I don’t want to think about it, I don’t care. Just tell me what to believe and I’ll believe it. Now will you please let me get back to entertaining myself with my useless distractions? This screen needs me to stare at it.”
It’s interesting, in this new Orwellian Age, to hear governments and media corporations (which are the same entity) talk about ‘false information’ or ‘misinformation.’ When something doesn’t agree with their agenda, it is automatically labeled ‘false information,’ but there can be no such thing as false information. All information is, in theory, misinformation until you can verify the validity of the information presented. Is the sky blue? Yes! Can it be red and yellow? Well…yeah, it can be but…
Have you ever personally gotten some horrific news from a trusted family member or close friend? Have you ever heard bad news about someone you love but you wouldn’t believe it until you could actually prove it to your self? Why? Because information is information. It can’t be right or wrong until it’s verified by you and your own personal judgment to prove whether or not the information is ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ but even that will vary greatly depending on your immediate circumstances.
It’s like saying ‘bad electricity’ or ‘good electricity’…it’s just electricity. Information is the same way. “True” information is just as valuable as “False” information, if you use them both for what they are meant for: comparison of information to find out what actually makes sense in the context of what is actually happening - not in theory, myth, or past precedence - but what is actually happening in the moment we find ourselves as individuals and as societies. Hey, wait a minute...isn’t that definition of ‘science,' studying stuff to find out what is?
If we, as individuals, would take the time to discover ourselves, then very little ‘outside’ information or news would be necessary to dictate our general way of living and behaving because we will have established for ourselves a certain set of standards that cannot vary according to the latest scandalous headlines invented by clever propagandists and war mongers.
In other words, if you know yourself you don’t need to know anything else.
Sure, you can sprinkle your Enlightenment with the sugar of new information and broaden your horizons by ever learning more and growing intellectually but you’ll find your tastes will always lean further and further toward the refined, the elegant, and the beautiful - not because all of the sudden you’re a snotty prude who thinks their better than everybody else, but because you recognize that you no longer relate to the profane, the ugly, and the grotesque. There will come a point when you see it for what it is...and it’s gross.
With so much information flooding into your overly-busy brain; with all the billions of blips, bleeps, bits, bytes, pixels, flashes, sounds and lights – how much of it do you think is ‘true’ information, ‘real’ information? What do you think? 100%? Is most of that information that you’re pushing so deep into your subconscious mind ‘true’? Is it a lot? Some? 75%, 50%...1%? How much of what is coming through that screen is stuff that actually happened, that actually affects you, or actually has a positive reason for you to be sucking it into your brain?
What are you being forced to believe wether you believe it or not? What’s getting through that thick skull of yours that you’re not even aware of? What the fuck are you putting in your head?
As Fred Sanford would say, “Don’t be stupid, you big dummy.”
That shit ain’t true. It’s that simple. My personal theory is this: ‘if it’s on TV it a lie.’ That’s it. Maybe, just maybe my theory is incorrect, but I have no to way to prove it.
Sure, the news says it’s raining in my home town and, low and behold, it’s raining in my home town. I could chalk that up to simple coincidence or general inference, or it might be that the media has indeed provided ‘real’ information without a bias or underlying agenda. But that doesn’t come anywhere close to proving that my theory is incorrect, and so I’m sticking with it. And if, by some chance, the news is proven to be True and Correct, it’s a still a huge distraction that you really don’t have time for. You have better things to do, like living a real, authentic life based on your own ideals and principles founded on the Laws of Love and - oh, wait. Never mind. Some chick with big tits is gonna tell this stupid bitch off, and then slap her ‘baby daddy.’ Let’s watch this instead.
Look, if you’re taking someone else’s word for it – for anything - you’d really, really, really have to trust them. Especially some paid whore who will read ANYTHING put in front of them for the right price, and call it the God’s Honest Truth.
If you don’t ever prove something to your own satisfaction (by actually experiencing or verifying the information with your live, physical senses) then, most likely, there will always be a shadow of doubt. Maybe that doubt isn’t a big, heavy shadow. Maybe it’s just a faint, whispy little thing that doesn’t necessarily get in your way…but it’s just ‘there,’ hanging around all nice and innocent-like, but you both know it’s never going anywhere. It’s gonna stick around until you have a good reason for her to leave – and she knows that you don’t. Sure, she smirks that super-fake smile each time you come across her – but you know what that smug little smile is hiding.
Remember this: There is no ‘truth’ until you know something is true. Until then it is just an illusion, a rumor, a phantom thought without a home…but that’s not how we, as Americans, have been taught and conditioned to think, and, of course, you’ll never be told anything close to this while you’re watching the ‘news’ or your media feed. Now ‘news’ and ‘facts’ have been pre-screened for our convenience – so we don’t have to worry about that old-fashioned and outdated process called ‘thinking.’
Of course, this isn’t meant to instill any sense of paranoia, or distrust among your ‘old, comfortable’ news outlets...but come on, have a little discernment the next time you’re presented with something that excites and titillates the worst parts of you.
Or, you can just shut you mouth, open your eyes, and be feed the lies that nourish your doubts, insecurities, and, most importantly, your fears. Let the media feed you who they want you to be. Let someone else take control of those pesky ‘thinking parts’ of you. What do you care? You’re hypnotized by the flickering refresh rate on your device. Ahh...true love. Just press ‘Agree’ and let’s move on.
It’s time to stop fucking around and figure out what Truth really is. Don’t settle for second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth-hand accounts of the Truth, find out for yourself. Better yet, forget about finding the Truth altogether and just find out who YOU are and kill two birds with one stone. Turn off the screen and stare into yourself instead. Try reading, and re-reading, and then thinking about a book or two. That’s the least you can do, right?
You’ve got a long life to live, you might as well figure out how to live it the way you want, or succumb to someone else’s vision for you - which, very likely, doesn’t look anything like the life you’d really like to live.
If you can find yourself and figure out who you really are then the ‘truly true’ Truth is automatically revealed, and you won’t have to go looking for it because you are it.
* I’ve listened to this song at least 2,000 times. I’ve never heard Gordon Downie say the lyrics as popularly stated online as, “Nothing’s changed anyway, anytime today.” I don’t hear it that way, and I never will…because nothing’s changed any way or any time, too.
Until we meet again, my friend, think good thoughts.
All my love,
Rev. Shakes Spear