SOUTH AFRICA: What Is Truth?
Truth is most often used to mean; “being in accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal.” Sadly though, it’s not as simple as that, because all human beings have unconscious “filters” which lead to bias.
Let me use a silly example to illustrate what I mean. I love coffee. I have many friends who love drinking coffee, I’m part of a group of “coffee lovers” who share stories, pictures and anything else related to coffee on Facebook, and I love reading articles which tell me why coffee is good for me. I happily share these articles with everyone I know. There are also many articles which tell me why coffee is bad for me, but I either don’t read or don’t believe those articles, and I definitely don’t share! I’m aware of this bias, but I don’t want to give up drinking coffee, so I ignore anything that counters my belief that coffee is good for me.
However, as I mentioned before, most of our filters are unconscious. So even if we think we’re being objective and reporting only facts, what we believe and what we share is shaped by the filters which were created by the way we were raised, and what we were taught by adults we trusted and respected.
Currently there are two human tragedies unfolding; The Gaza War and the Ebola Outbreak. Both of these stories have generated a type of media frenzy. It’s impossible to remain neutral. I know what I, a Caucasian, 45 year old woman, mother of 2, non-practicing Catholic, Italian living in South Africa, believes but for the sake of illustrating my point, I’m going to take the opposite stance regarding the Ebola Outbreak.
“I was born and raised in rural Sierra Leone. I’ve never heard of viruses. I’ve never met people of a different race. One day these strange people come to my village and the police and soldiers come and block roads. Some people I know just disappear. People I trust tell me it’s because these strange new people have come to our village, and are making us sick because they need our bodies to do witchcraft. I am very frightened. I see them carry away J and I never see him again. When I ask those strange people where is J, they tell me he is dead …. but they never give the body back to the family to bury as is proper. Now I know the truth, what the people are saying is right, why else would they not return the body to the grieving family? It must be because they are using his body parts to do witchcraft.”
Can you see how his “truth” differs from ours? Do you understand how logical it is for him to come to the conclusion he has, given what he “knows”?
EXACTLY!!!
I loved this post and your examples!
I try explaining this concept to my students and my own kids but it usually depends on their home backgrounds as to whether they “get it” or not.
Thanks for sharing!
The Ebola example is being reported and is worrying. Because the virus is spreading so rapidly, it sounds like there has not been time to explain what health workers who are trying to contain the disease are doing. And, I read in the NY Times that it is difficult to recruit doctors and local volunteers for fear that they will contract the disease. I hope they will be able to contain the virus soon.
I had a professor at University who challenged us to write why we were the religion that we were. It was amazing to find that it was because our families had raised us this way, and we came to the realization that our religion or beliefs or non beliefs as children would be different if we were born into a different family or even in a different part of the world. It was my first introduction into enculturation. It is the same with language. That exercise helped me be more understanding of others by trying to put myself in their shoes.
Yesterday on the site, we talked about how the decisions that the humans who came before us are still affecting humanity negatively today. We are having to deal with problems created by history, and we are born into them. Change seems to happen in small increments over time — that arc that Dr. King spoke of, right? But, I like to think that we will get there and stay positive. How do we increase the rate of change to benefit future humanity? By change, I mean peace and understanding. Coexisting peacefully is the key.
By the way, Simona…I’m a tea drinker. 😉 lol!!!! Thank you for keeping us thinking!
I am actually quite optimistic about our future because (in large part also due to the Internet) the new generation is being exposed to many more diverse points of view than we were when we were growing up. My 18 year old daughter and a lot of her friends are aware of the “filters” I talk about. This gives me hope for a kinder and more tolerant humanity in the future! 🙂 Btw, I only drink tea when I’m sick! 😛
Of course where we come from affects our opinions. But there are cases where there is only one truth. Based on the information the man in your example has, of course he will think that they would perform witchcraft. But his beliefs don’t make him right. It’s not a shame to be misinformed or not understand the information given you, this is what experts are for. You can’t choose the science that suits you best. As for coffe, if you would actually read the studies, you would see that 1) coffee good or bad for different reasons so it can be both and 2) you would actually need to drink lots of coffee before it would actually affect you in a negative way. It’s not your truth, or mine truth. Coffee is beneficial in moderate quantities. That is the truth. Scientists are actually well aware of all the fallacies (including the one you mentioned, called confirmation bias) and they do their best to rule them out in their research. You can argue whether you like Picasso. But you can’t argue with a well conducted study.
SO totally right on. In so many ways we need to “check our own filter first.” Our perspective, no matter how clearly “right” or “logical,” is but one perspective. Thanks for this post!