How much of our story is fake news?
Wikipedia – Fake news is written and published with the intent to mislead… The relevance of fake news has increased in post-truth politics.
Google Search ‘Results for Fake News’ = 791,000,000
Google News results for ‘Fake News’ = 613,000,000
What about fake news in a post-truth life?
What do I mean by a post-truth life? I’m referring to what many call the false self, the constructed self, the ego self, or the conceptual self. Before #fakenews became a trending term and a political tool for misdirection and obfuscation, it was central to ego development for building and supporting identities and personal stories.
Fake News of Self can Include:
Beliefs & attitudes
Buying into Gossip
Living through Self-images and concepts
Half-truths, misunderstandings, and ignorance
Living and loving truth requires speaking and being truthful to the best of our current knowledge and ability and intimately examining our life thus far to light up and challenge the hidden fake news of our past.
What is the cost of living with our fake news?
Here are a few quotes from 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson to give some perspective:
To tell the truth is to bring the most habitable reality into Being. Truth builds edifices that can stand a thousand years. Truth feeds and clothes the poor, and makes nations wealthy and safe. Truth reduces the terrible complexity of a man to the simplicity of his word, so that he can become a partner, rather than an enemy. Truth makes the past truly past, and makes the best use of the future’s possibilities. Truth is the ultimate, inexhaustible natural resource. It’s the light in the darkness. See the truth. Tell the truth.
It might be the noisy troublemakers who disappear, first, when the institution you serve falters and shrinks. But it’s the invisible who will be sacrificed next. Someone hiding is not someone vital. Vitality requires original contribution. Hiding also does not save the conforming and conventional from disease, insanity, death and taxes. And hiding from others also means suppressing and hiding the potentialities of the unrealized self. And that’s the problem. If you will not reveal yourself to others, you cannot reveal yourself to yourself. That does not only mean that you suppress who you are, although it also means that. It means that so much of what you could be will never be forced by necessity to come forward. This is a biological truth, as well as a conceptual truth. When you explore boldly, when you voluntarily confront the unknown, you gather information and build your renewed self out of that information. That is the conceptual element. However, researchers have recently discovered that new genes in the central nervous system turn themselves on when an organism is placed (or places itself) in a new situation. These genes code for new proteins. These proteins are the building blocks for new structures in the brain. This means that a lot of you is still nascent, in the most physical of senses, and will not be called forth by stasis. You have to say something, go somewhere and do things to get turned on. And, if not…you remain incomplete, and life is too hard for anyone incomplete.
Only the most cynical, hopeless philosophy insists that reality could be improved through falsification. Such a philosophy judges Being and becoming alike, and deems them flawed. It denounces truth as insufficient and the honest man as deluded. It is a philosophy that both brings about and then justifies the endemic corruption of the world. It is not vision as such, and not a plan devised to achieve a vision, that is at fault under such circumstances. A vision of the future, the desirable future, is necessary. Such a vision links action taken now with important, long-term, foundational values. It lends actions in the present significance and importance. It provides a frame limiting uncertainty and anxiety. It’s not vision. It is instead willful blindness. It’s the worst sort of lie. It’s subtle. It avails itself of easy rationalizations. Willful blindness is the refusal to know something that could be known. It’s refusal to admit that the knocking sound means someone at the door. It’s refusal to acknowledge the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room, the elephant under the carpet, the skeleton in the closet.
Exploring truth truthfully necessitates that we challenge everything we have built ourselves and our life upon thus far – including our fake news from infancy to the present moment. Our “relative truth” must be thrown into the crucible of inquiry, exploration, and reevaluation. Each cherished belief and conviction, every “known” must be rebirthed through a process of not-knowing.
This process involves free-falling inquiry – a mostly non-verbal experience, not intellectual inquiry. There aren’t questions or answers in the mind. The activated language of inquiry isn’t word-based, and it’s experiential – immediate living and knowing/knowledge. Words and mental understanding follow and flow from the lived experience. The mind does this automatically, so we don’t have to worry about the need for “us” being there to direct things.
The big challenge is – just how much openness can be tolerated. Revelation is an ethereal and ephemeral plummet along the fulcrum of being/non-being.
The Land of Truth
A certain man believed that the ordinary waking life, as people know it, could not possibly be complete.
He sought the real Teacher of the Age. He read many books and joined many circles, and he heard the words and witnessed the deeds of one master after another. He carried out the commands and spiritual exercises which seemed to him to be most attractive.
He became elated with some of his experiences. At other times he was confused, and he had no idea what his stage was or where and when his search might end.
This man was reviewing his behavior one day when he suddenly found himself near the house of a certain sage of high repute. In the garden of that house, he encountered Khidr, the secret guide who shows the way to Truth.
Khidr took him to a place where he saw people in great distress and woe, and he asked who they were. “We are those who did not follow real teachings, who were not true to our undertakings, who revered self-appointed teachers,” they said.
Then the man was taken by Khidr to a place where everyone was attractive and full of joy. He asked who they were. “We are those who did not follow the real Signs of the Way,” they said.
“But if you have ignored the Signs, how can you be happy?” asked the traveler.
“Because we chose happiness instead of Truth,” said the people, “just as those who chose the self-appointed chose also misery.”
“But is happiness not the ideal of man?” asked the man.
“The goal of man is Truth. Truth is more than happiness. The man who has Truth can have whatever mood he wishes, or none,” they told him. “We have pretended that Truth is happiness and happiness Truth, and people have believed us, therefore, you, too, have until now imagined that happiness must be the same as Truth. But happiness makes you its prisoner, as does woe.”
Then the man found himself back in the garden, with Khidr beside him.
“I will grant you one desire,” said Khidr.
“I wish to know why I have failed in my search and how I can succeed in it,” said the man.
“You have all but wasted your life,” said Khidr, “because you have been a liar. Your lie has been in seeking personal gratification when you could have been seeking Truth.”
“And yet I came to the point where I found you,” said the man, “and that is something which happens to hardly anyone at all.”
“And you met me,” said Khidr, “because you had sufficient sincerity to desire Truth for its own sake, just for an instant. It was that sincerity, in that single instant, which made me answer your call.”
Now the man felt an overwhelming desire to find Truth, even if he lost himself.
Khidr, however, was starting to walk away, and the man began to run after him.
“You may not follow me,” said Khidr, “because I am returning to the ordinary world, the world of lies, for that is where I have to be, if I am to do my work.”
And when the man looked around him again, he realized that he was no longer in the garden of the sage, but standing in the Land of Truth. – Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East
FAQ
- What does the author mean by “fake news of self”?
The author refers to our false beliefs and attitudes about ourselves, buying into gossip, living through self-images and concepts, and half-truths, misunderstandings, and ignorance as “fake news of self”. These are the untruths we live with, shaping our identities and personal stories [1]. - What is the cost of living with our “fake news”?
The cost of living with our “fake news” is that we suppress who we are and what we could be. We remain incomplete, and life becomes harder for us. We also miss out on the potential to grow and develop new structures in our brains. - What does the author suggest we do to live a truthful life?
The author suggests that we should challenge everything we have built ourselves and our life upon, including our “fake news” from infancy to the present. This involves a process of not-knowing, free-falling inquiry, and experiential learning. The author emphasizes the importance of openness in this process. - What is the “Land of Truth” mentioned in the post?
The “Land of Truth” is a metaphorical place where one seeks and finds truth. It is a state of being where one is sincere in their desire for truth, even if it means losing oneself. It is a place of self-realization and understanding. - Who is Khidr mentioned in the post?
Khidr is a figure from Islamic tradition who is considered a guide who shows the way to truth. In the post, Khidr represents the guide who helps the man understand his failures in his search for truth and how he can succeed. - What does the author mean by “relative truth”?
“Relative truth” refers to the beliefs and convictions we hold that are subject to personal interpretation or perspective. These are the truths that need to be challenged and reevaluated in the pursuit of absolute truth. - What is the role of “free-falling inquiry” in the search for truth?
“Free-falling inquiry” is a process of exploration and reevaluation that involves a non-verbal, experiential form of understanding. It is not about asking questions or seeking answers in the mind but about immediate living and knowing. It is a key part of challenging our “relative truths.” - What is the connection between truth and happiness, according to the post?
The post suggests that truth is more than happiness. While happiness can make one its prisoner, truth allows one to have whatever mood they wish or none. The goal of man is truth, and happiness is not the same as truth. - What does the author mean by “the most habitable reality”?
The “most habitable reality” refers to a state of being built on truth. It is a sustainable, safe reality that can stand time’s test. It is a reality built on honesty and transparency [1].