The truth hurts sometimes...

This is a very political year in the USA and elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere. With technology and mass media lined up to carry or comment on every candidates words...and then in the next nano second line it up to something else they said 20 or more years ago...is wreaking havoc on campaigns and "bringing chickens home to roost". What is often hard to determine is what a candidate REALLY believes versus what they CLAIM in order to be politically expedient.

Of course, the other thing we sheeple tend not to leave much room for is the evolution and change that comes if a human allows himself to grow and change. I think of many things I said and thought 20-30 years ago that I now would shudder to utter. How simple life and opinions seem to be when we are young compared to the complications we learn as we grow older. While the world craves black and white answers and truths...we find more and more that the answers or truths come in mostly various shades of gray. Most of us don`t like gray...but gray is the predominant color along these lines.

Our other tendency regarding "truths" is to defend our perception of them even in the face of significant doubts or new information to the contrary. Our truths become part of who we are...and to change or admit error in who we are is tremendously painful and sometimes impossible to bear. Many suicidal tendencies tend to creep up in people who find out that some of their heroes or institutions are not all they were perceived to be. The idea of...say computers... shutting down and then rebooting for fresh input and perspective is not so easy in the human mind. The only way to completely reboot the mind is to develop a form of amnesia for all previous programming. This is next to impossible as most of us live for SELF preservation and find it painfully difficult to change our personalities and perceptions. I think the "truth" just hurts too much to change our perceptions of it sometimes.

Truth of course is the greatest "goal" of the philosopher or inquisitive mind. Defining and sustaining truth is often a full time job...that most of us don`t have time for. So...we "go with the flow" of our cultures and families. Whatever institutions we define ourselves by tend to paint our truths "by the numbers" for us. Unfortunately, for truth itself, it tends to get very shortchanged in reason and perspective. If we only look for truths that fit OUR often unproven preconceptions...it should be very difficult to sense much security in our positions and perceptions.

The painfulness of false truths is that it calls into question one`s integrity and sincerity on issues of faith and/or patriotism. One of the most painful things to say or think about our own country or religious institutions is when we uncover the many falsehoods and cover-ups that have been devised by governments and religious rulers for hundreds or thousands of years. Perpetuating myths for thousands of years never turns myth into fact. Yet...a majority of the world`s population place their meaning and identity in the hands of mysticism and blind faith causes. To have blind faith as a cause for self improvement or to "feel" better about the worlds mysteries is quite understandable if fallible. To have blind faith that causes one to hook up bombs to their persons and blow up "Infidels" is quite another and is a grotesque result of blind faith.

In this political year in the USA, we have various perspectives being brandied about by most all the candidates about their "faith". We have a recent ex President who based his decisions on going to war and sacrificing tens of thousands of lives...after reading the Bible and praying. Now, not all of us come to that same conclusion by reading the Bible and praying. In general, I now find it very troubling when people start quoting religious texts to support political or personal actions. Now we have a myriad of these people, quoting the same book and referencing the same religion, and coming to very different conclusions about what is just or fair. Their perceptions of "truth" have become a danger to all of mankind from my observation.

Absolute truth can be difficult to arrive at, and demand tremendous changes that we SHOULD adhere to when we find it. Yet, the most dangerous and "hurtful" truth is that which is 10% or 20% false. That falsehood could kill you...along with a few million others...both literally and figuratively.