Truth
(1) Abstract sunlight that disinfects bad ideas and builds the broadest possible consensus.
The one thing that always matters more than consequences.
The enemy and cure for ideology and illegitimate power.
A precious commodity that is worth protecting at all costs.
Prioritizing truth attempts to ensure that we are all subject to the same rules of engagement. Functionally identical to transparency, which is why the corrupt and ambitious avoid it at all costs.
The active pursuit of truth is one of the most benevolent states of existence, because it seeks to standardize reality in a manner that can be universally engaged with and observed. If an idea or phenomenon can be stabilized, categorized, clarified, resilient enough to withstand most attacks, and capable of being integrated in a meaningful way in our lives, then it threatens illegitimate power. It is in this way that knowledge about truth is legitimate power, and knowledge about anything else is at best a forgery. Truth disperses the dark.
Strategies are frequently employed to dissuade reverence for truth, because if it becomes common, spurious structures may begin to wane. This can be done by standardizing the precepts of illegitimate power in a culture. Destabilize ideas and phenomena, break categories or render them useless, obscure everything, promote the gaps and holes in flimsy concepts to distract citizens from their primary goals, and demoralize the population by replacing meaningful substance with hollow engagement. Alternatively, you can simply infer that truth does not exist. While this is an elegant approach, it is only afforded undue attention in vacuous circles. Elsewhere it is likely to invite EYE ROLLING.
Because the function of truth is to act as a common orienting force that assists us in understanding what is real, you cannot have your own truth by definition. Claiming that we can have our own truths is pseudo-intellectual garbage that seeks to formalize pride as a virtue, and claimants are attempting to destroy fairness and equality, whether they are aware of it or not.
(2) A set of discoverable facts that liberate the human spirit. Constructed facts are never true; they imprison the mind while confusing our orientation. Truth is uttered most frequently by those who respect and love us enough to share it with us. People who substitute the truth for an inferior product are indifferent to your suffering.
If a truth exists, it would be a description of an objective pattern woven into reality that exists regardless of whether or not we are there to interpret it. People can have lots of things: beliefs, views, intuitions, experiences, delusions, sensations and many more.
We cannot have our own truth; ownership is impossible.
Revised: 15 Jan 2023
Rebel
A free thinker.
An identity inhabited by those who believe they possess more value as an individual than as a member of a group.
Someone who is not available for purchase; they must be negotiated with.
Albert Camus claimed that ‘a rebel is someone who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation.’ He added that rebels ‘are also those who say yes, from the moment they make their first gesture of rebellion.’ Rebels are known to speak out when they perceive antitheses, but this does not mean that they throw out the baby with the bath water. On the contrary, when the tides have turned, they remain vigilant in pointing out where the rebellion has gone too far, opposing the groundswell that may even pay them tribute.
Rebels are not contrarians, although they can present this way, and how they are defined will ultimately be determined by the contexts within which they are saying yes or no.
Traditionally, a rebel would oppose a government, but the modern technological age has introduced so many groups into everyday life that the simple act of independent thought is considered foreign and suspicious. Free thinkers are most frequently made into pariahs or scapegoats; their proclivity to oppose established norms is considered politically inconvenient.
If we have come to a point where simply living freely as an individual is an act of rebellion, then it is time to say no.
See: HERESY
Posted: 29 Dec 2022
Modest
A trait that grows with wisdom and shrinks with inexperience.
It is difficult for humans to be modest; we are not wired as such. Our egocentricism is a by-product of the biological torque that drives all organisms to perceive their own supremacy influenced by an evolutionary history that is millions of years old.
The elevation of our interests is necessary for procreation, which contributes a great deal to human meaning. Beyond this, our egocentricism is likely to make us insufferable, and rightfully so. We may not always be able to curb it, but voluntary injections of doubt into our views will promote growth and social cohesion.
Information is one thing, knowledge is another, but wisdom is the best game in town, and modesty is the best measure of victory.
Posted: 29 Dec 2022
Dictionary
Opinion presented as truth in alphabetical order.(1)
Dictionaries have long earned a reputation for being prescriptive, that is, its contents outline what has become established or accepted as true. This is an epistemological claim asserting that TRUTH flows forth from linguistic representations of symbols interpreted by the brain. This is an ideological position. The opposite is true. Dictionaries are actually a collection of beliefs informed by observations that struggle to describe reality. This is metaphysical conjecture that appreciates the complex relationship between reality, truth, language and human bias. This does not eradicate the utility of dictionaries, but it should significantly alter our perspective regarding their value.
This distinction between the nature of dictionaries, prescriptive or descriptive, informs us a great deal about how reports are constructed in general. Is there intentionality embedded in human reporting? Is it making an argument or is it attempting to inform? Even if it is the latter, there is certainly an underlying presumption that whatever is being observed occurred in a manner consistent with its reporting, or that it was worthy of being covered in the first place. These are perspectives informed by a conscious prioritization of assumed accuracy and importance, neither of which are even remotely argued during reports despite the fact that they are fundamentally claims about truth. What is truth, exactly? And why do we assume it is present in any reporting, regardless of who is stating it?
Without even a minor understanding of what truth looks like, whether it is understood by professional observers well enough to report on it, and a clear depiction of the intentioned machinery at play, only a FOOL would assume that truth is present anywhere simply because they happened to bump into it.
Posted: 29 Dec 2022
(1) Saul, John Ralston, 1994, The doubter’s companion: a dictionary of aggressive common sense, Penguin Books Canada Ltd
The
An attempt at capturing infinity.
Bottling reality is necessary, not only for human sense-making, but also because sometimes it leads to truth.
Whether we are comfortable being contained is irrelevant, the utility of sacrificing a portion of our potential for both short- and long-term value is one of the few obvious things on offer in life. Some pursue bondage and others long for liberation, but the definition that constrains the chaos beyond is both grounding and orienting.
We will always seek its level.
Posted: 29 Dec 2022