In spite of the fact that everyone who testifies in court is required to place their hand on a Bible (What is that about anyway? Why do they use our book?) and swear to tell "the truth," the general consensus among lawyers I consulted was that nobody tells the truth in court. One attorney candidly confessed that what judges and juries have to come up with when assessing testimony is "the most plausible perjury."
In other words, they assume that everyone is lying and that the best outcome is basically whatever story makes the most sense to whomever is making the decision. If the decision-makers are not particularly self-aware -- and, believe me, judges are at least as impaired by self-serving delusions as people who have no power at all -- then their decisions are fatally infected by self-interest. That is, they will go with whatever appeals to their desire, fear, and anger, whatever story buttresses their thinking about the world, serves their personal and professional goals, and places them in the best light. The decision that gets made ends up being the one that makes them feel best.
This is the way we are increasingly making all our decisions. When Ronald Reagan asked voters whether they were "better off," he stated what became the basic criterion for everything. He inadvertently echoed the 60's mantra, "If it feels good, do it!" It's all about feelings. If it feels true it must be true. This is how we determine what is plausible: what feels right to us.
If truth is reduced to feelings, facts don't matter. Facts have in fact been shown to be susceptible to spinning and interpretation. The data and statistics we are willing to accept are dependent on how we feel about them. Experts know how to present "facts" in such a way as to incite particular feelings. And feelings are often based on perceived consequences of our actions and decisions.
If I am not happy with the state of the world, I can look for someone to blame. I can immerse myself in grievances and resentments. As if all facts are equal and I get to choose the ones I want to use to cobble together a story that makes sense to me, that is, that makes me feel good: vindicated, comforted, righteous, pious, responsible.
Some States are passing laws that don't allow schools to teach history that makes some white people feel bad. The facts don't matter. Feelings matter... and only the feelings of white people. Stories that make Black people feel bad are fine, apparently, which makes this a deeply political matter, with the loudest and most obnoxious group getting to have their story maintained, and their feelings catered to, at everyone else's expense.
Feelings are therefore the result of a calculus of consequences, like the Pharisees trying to answer Jesus' question about whether John the Baptizer was from God or not. "If we say this then that will happen, and if we say that then this will happen," so, unable to choose between two uncomfortable outcomes, they decided to say they didn't know.
Is truth based on the anticipated consequences and how we feel about them? This attitude leads us to deny facts that don't suit us, like the global climate crisis. This is what chairman Mao was thinking when he caused a famine by trying to set agricultural policy according to his political ideology. This is what Donald Trump is doing with his persistent lies about the 2020 election. As if things can't be true if they do not gratify our self-image.
We read the Bible this way as well. Too often the Bible is just like the Mirror of Erised in the Harry Potter books, reflecting our own desires, showing us what we want to be. This is how people at opposite extremes on socio-economic-political spectrums can manage to wield the Bible supposedly in their own favor. We assume that Scripture and the Church exist to make us feel good (and someone else feel bad, usually people we don't like). This is true of liberals as well as conservatives. We expect the text to just reflect back to us what we want, and if it doesn't do this to our satisfaction, we ignore, change, or marginalize the parts that don't serve us.
We're not going to get to the truth unless we care more about the truth than we do about self-gratification. That is already a difficult ask. It demands a complete change of our way of thinking. Scripture refers to this as repentance: metanoia, attaining a new mind.
Our egocentricity is so profound in us that it taints and colors everything we perceive and every decision we make. Spiritual maturity is learning to recognize this and let go of it, which is a very painful process. Jesus calls it giving up your life and self and taking up your cross. But every faith tradition in the world has something like it. It is the beginning insight of the Enneagram, for instance, that we are distorted by personality.
If we continue to muddle and crash through our existence, unconsciously following what we self-servingly determine to be the most plausible facts, adhering to false narratives and the strategies based on them, we will continue to wreak damage in all our relationships and therefore on the whole world. Perjury is still a lie even if we imagine it to be plausible.
I'm not saying that the truth is always something uncomfortable, inconvenient, and difficult that we don't want to hear about. But frankly a large part of the time it is. And it's not like everything uncomfortable, inconvenient, and difficult is true. But we do have to put some effort and attention into discernment, and realize that the truth is very likely to challenge our self-image. It is likely not to be something we want to hear.
But the truth is, in the end, good news because following gratifying falsehoods eventually leads to death and disaster. Like diving out a 7th story window because you feel like you should be able to fly. Or going barefoot in February because you feel like it should always be summer. The thing about truth is that it always wins.
We don't have much time at this point. We are wrecking things at too fast a pace. We need to follow the truth asap. This means following Jesus, who is the Truth, and his Way of non-violence, compassion, humility, inclusion, forgiveness, service, healing, justice, and love.
+++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment