Truth Beyond Facts

What is truth beyond facts? Aren’t truth and facts one and the same?

Facts are facts. We do not argue over them. Facts can be checked and verified.

When many of us concur to a fact, we find the truth. Truth requires facts to substantiate.

Imagine we have two groups of people arriving at some truth from some facts. Both have truths substantiated by facts. But, what if one group’s truth is in conflict with the other? Whose truth is the better truth?! We have a disagreement. The easiest example is those who believe in God and those who do not.

In the movie Twenty:20, there is a court sequence with Mohanlal as the murder accused, Suresh Gopi as the policeman and Mammootty as the lawyer. The court was presented with the fact that the policeman saw the accused with a knife in one hand and the victim on the other hand. The fact was not disputed. But the lawyer asked the policeman, whether the accused was seen stabbing the victim or pulling the knife out? The truth was under conflict and the accused was let go.

So, what is truth, when we do not have universal acceptance of it?

We are surrounded by this conflict. We have an abundance of facts but no truth shared by all of us.

We have a leading actor under trial for abducting another actor. What is the truth?

Our leading politicians are under trial for various allegations of corruption and even pogroms. What is the truth?

COVID-19 surrounded us with a lot of facts - the number of deaths, survivors, beds, vaccines, etc. What is the lasting truth? What will this be pandemic be remembered for? Doctors at Elmhurst Hospital, New York are yet to recover from the trauma a year back. Young patients they speak to on the first day, do not speak the next day and dies the third day. A new patient is replaced. The story repeats. While at it they lose their parents, siblings and colleagues. The vaccine is not the truth, probably the resilience of humanity is!

Immediately after the panchayat elections, there were few cases of elected representatives suiciding or attempting suicide. Why do they do it, soon after the public showing confidence in them? What is the truth?

The truth remains elusive to us in many ways. Till very recently, traditional balanced media was able to ensure a shared truth held by the public. Good or bad, that has gone now. With pervasive social media, we now have multiple truths held by smaller and smaller groups that are in conflict with each other.

Our decisions are a manifestation of the truth that we hold on to. Such decisions are very important when we are about to elect our representatives. To make matters worse, we have around us, professional campaigners. We will be surrounded by facts and narratives packaged in a convenient format with anecdotes. We will be led to a truth shared by a larger community. Before we know it, we would have made the wrong choice. Beware!

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