By Jim Heffernan
Oddly enough, I’ve been thinking of Superman.
I grew up in the 1950’s inspired by Superman’s motto, “Truth, Justice, and the American way”. I did not comprehend then that the “American way” had serious conflicts with truth and justice. Segregation was the law in many states and accepted custom in others. “The American way” has been sanitized a lot in the intervening years, but still falls somewhat short of true truth and justice.
I was gratified to learn that three years ago, DC comics changed the motto to “Truth, Justice, and A Better Tomorrow”. No more worries about the technical imperfections of “The American way”
I never anticipated that “Truth” would become a nebulous idea when I became an old man.
The 50’s were tough times. In a city, you might have 3 or 4 TV channels. News, weather, and sports were rationed to an hour, three times a day. Social media was science fiction. The daily paper weighed about a pound. The telephone was connected to a wire and all you could do with it was talk. But despite the deprivations, we pretty much agreed on what the truth was.
The internet was supposed to improve our communications. It seems that all it has brought is a steady erosion of truth. It is very easy for us to pick and choose between myriad versions of what we hold to be true. If you want to think the earth is flat, you can find people who will back you up. (This is a particularly ridiculous idea. If the earth were flat, cats would have knocked everything off by now.)
I would like to think that some clear voice might rise and clear the fog, but if there is obscenely good money to be made in the doom and gloom agitation business that passes for internet journalism, I don’t think it will happen.
I think the only solution will be learning to talk civilly to each other. If we arm ourselves with a good understanding of the scientific principle, maybe we can find the compromises that will lead to a concept of truth that we can agree on.
A clearer concept of truth will surely lead to a better tomorrow.
As always, discussion is welcome at codger817@gmail.com