Philosophy has always questioned the meaning of the word ‘truth’. What one person sees, when they look at the world, may not be what another person sees. Scientific truth is only valid until any particular theory is disproved or replaced. Social truth is subject to opinion with more shades of grey than black or white.
It may, therefore, seem strange that I should argue that truth can be a problem-solving tool in its own right in the real world.
To some people, it may seem completely incomprehensible , because they have little belief in the effectiveness of truth or, indeed, the rule of law. I have seen many people in the UK, who believed that they are law abiding and upright citizens, but also believe that they have a divine right to exceed the speed limit whenever they feel like it, drink and drive and, generally, park where they want to, as long as they are not caught.
They also cheat on their wives or husbands and tell lies to cover up.
Magically, pens, rubbers and rulers find their way from their work place into their homes. Expense accounts are so often subject to truth revision that they are sometimes called ’swindle sheets’.
And these are the law-abiding people who consider themselves up right citizens.
So how much worse must be the true criminals who end up in prison, costing enormous amounts of money to the taxpayer? Or are they just the ones that got caught?
What about the situation that we are all in, from time to time, where we allow other people to lie on our behalf?
The government in the UK claims that vulnerable people will be protected by their liberalisation of gambling under the Gambling Act 2005. Perhaps children will be protected but how will can vulnerable adults be protected until they have been affected by their, possibly new, gambling habit. Some years down the line, I predict that gambling organisations will be required to put health warnings on their gambling machines just as cigarette manufacturers are required to do today. Until that day happens, gambling organisations will get away with suggesting punters can win when the truth is they won’t. Why not require gambling organisations to put health warnings on their machines now and tell the whole truth straight away?
Surely, either we believe that we have an obligation to speak the truth in our society or we accept that half truths and plain lies are genuine currency and live in a state of uncertainty about the facts.
But why speak the truth? Is a society that seeks truth more likely to survive and thrive than one that fibs?
The answer seems obvious. Surely common sense suggests that the outcomes of people’s actions arising from a belief that is wholly true are more likely to be sensible and beneficial than decisions made on half truths?
‘I can win back the money I’ve lost’ is a half truth which should be expanded to ‘but I probably won’t’. Let’s make this clear on the front of gaming machines and tell the whole story.
A society who have a philosophy that believes praying to a Sun god will solve all it’s problems is less likely to come up with a sensible agricultural solution which will prevent millions starving.
A society that wrongly believes the other side has nuclear weapons is more likely to make a preemptive attack and kill a lot of ordinary people than one that has worked to find out the truth and is therefore able to seek out other more time consuming options.
The truth is that many laws do not solve the problem for which they are enacted, they simply get Governments off the hook.
Prisons don’t work, proved by the re offending rate, social rehabilitation does. People with great lives don’t need to steal or kill people. The truth is that, if people have lousy lives, some of them will kick back. Let’s help people sort out their lives and save much of the cost of running the prisons. Unfortunately, it takes a lot more effort to help people sort out their lives than to build more prisons and Governments, with little commitment to truth but a big interest in holding power, seem to prefer the easy lie.
In the UK, the Government has thrown it’s weight behind increasing temptation to punters with the Gambling Act 2005 which makes gambling more accessible, including online gambling.
If the UK Government truly wanted to make our society better, they could have been more truthful about the measures needed to manage the dangers to all gamblers, not merely the few who are ‘vulnerable’, arising from their liberalization of the gambling regulations.
This would have required the true nature of each gambling transaction to be clearly stated at the point of gamble.
By focusing on the particularly vulnerable, and introducing a few sticking plaster measures to protect them, the UK Government is telling a half truth. Yes children and addicts are particularly vulnerable but the truth is that each transaction has the capability of hurting any gambler that takes part. Participation involves a fundamental self deception that they can win.
Arguably, our ethics come from a desire to create a society that is better for all of us and therefore better for each of us?
Surely it is common sense that running a society on half truths and lies must hurt people in our society and ultimately mean that we are hurting ourselves.
Truth may be the ultimate weapon but are the Government and ordinary people willing to commit to telling it?
If we don’t, all our lives will be the poorer.
Bye for now