The decline and fall of truth is, sadly, our legacy in the 21st Century. Science is defined by political rhetoric, and opposing the popular thing is labeled as misinformation or disinformation.
That’s not to say there has never been deceit or distrust; those are part and parcel of government, politics, human nature, and everyday life. But the pursuit and defense of truth are as near to death as at any point in my lifetime.
Robin Phillips has a two-part Essay at SALVO Mag that covers the topic and how the absence of truth undermines trust, which can undermine an entire nation.
It is long and might be paywalled (I’ve included the links in case they are not), but excellent, so I wanted to share two bits that give you a sense of it all from Phillips’ perspective.
Without trust in the institutions that create, mediate, and enforce our laws, the relationship between the rulers and the ruled has to be renegotiated in terms of mere power. This is because no regime can be sustained over time unless there is self-enforcement of law from a critical mass of citizens. But this requires trust; it requires that a sufficient number of citizens trust their rulers enough to be invested in the survival of the system. This is precisely why rulers and their functionaries must never be willing to sacrifice the people’s trust.
The Political Left, with rare exceptions, is committed to the Marxist need to undermine every institution so we won’t get any help from their leaders. Their mission is to collapse the system, including the government itself, so they can rebuild a utopia. Something that no Marxist has managed in over 100 years of trying. But those drawn to positions of power are often the least capable of resisting the urge to abuse it or the notion that they are the best people for the job.
Undermining trust is part of the plan, and we can see it unfolding. Truth, the foundation of trust, has been made unapproachable by the same people.
This disregard for truth may explain why there are few to no public debates on the great questions of our time. You won’t find symposiums for publicly debating whether men can have periods, or whether inclusion means excluding those who object to ideological uniformity, or whether equality means treating people unequally. Nor are there research grants for finding out if CRT is an accurate theory, if the new transgender biology is scientifically correct, or whether identity politics presents a correct anthropology. Nor are universities sponsoring Lincoln-Douglas style debates on whether “wokeness” is good for society. Even those who care most strongly about these questions tend to focus their attention, not on publicly debating the truth content of their claims, but on organizing Groupthink and punishing those who dissent from ideological purity.
Most religions are more open to debate about the finer points of their faith than the cultural Marxists are about their own. From sex to life to bodily autonomy to natural rights, there is not only a lack of continuity in their dogma but daring even to debate it is verboten.
Many on the left have become cloistered ideological zealots, which, ironically enough, is an institution that will need to be undermined before the Marxist utopia can spring from the rubble of our world.
As with so many things, the first step is admitting there is a problem, but since you can’t debate it …
