Truth is the Ultimate Consumer Choice
January 8, 2008
Former Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, who is now running for president, says he “does not believe in evolution”. Fascinating.
Near as I can figure it out, we live in an intellectually spoiled age when even presidential candidates think they can legitimately pick and choose which facts to believe — as if facts were something good consumers shop for the best bargains on.
Don’t like evolution? Simply don’t buy it! As a good consumer, you have an inalienable right to choose which truths you want to believe. After all, reality is just a product.
That attitude — the attitude that truths are to be treated like consumer products — pervades almost all of American society today. It represents the ultimate victory of our narcissistic consumer culture over the silly, outdated notion truths are worth sticking to even when it emotionally hurts to accept them. And it’s no accident we think that way these days.
Many of us would like to believe the comforting thought that the vast majority of the people we depend on in this world — that’s to say, the vast majority of people in our societies — have high standards for truth. We’d like to believe that, but we can’t. It’s not true.
The vast majority of people did not get their standards for truth from any rigorous source. Instead, they mostly got their standards of truth from two sources. From their friends, family and peers. And from the mass media.
Now, we don’t know what values their friends, family and peers instilled in them about truth, but we can plainly see what values the mass media instills. The mass media promotes the idea that truth is little more than a consumer choice. An option. Don’t like what you see? Flip channels. Don’t like what you read? Buy a different book. Don’t like what you hear? Change radio stations. Today, most of us shop for “truth” just like we shop for socks.
Yet, it’s a bit worse than that. It’s worse because most of us see a few hundred ads a day — and the standards for truth in those ads are anything but rigorous. The half truths and lies of advertising have largely become the standard for truth in our culture.
That’s to say, we are so bombarded with half truths and lies that being lied to no longer outrages us; we no longer hold liars in contempt; and we do not refuse to have any dealings with them. In our age, lying is increasingly socially acceptable.
So, we not only shop for the “truth” like we shop for anything else, but our standards for truth are all too often weak and insipid.
Huckabee is by no means the only intellectually limp American. According to polls, at least 43% of Americans do not accept the fact of evolution. Can you blame them, though? They’ve been told their whole lives truth is an option, a consumer choice; that the standards for truth are weak and insipid; and that they have a precious consumer’s right to choose whatever “truth” makes them feel good.
That, at least, is what I guess is going on in the world today. Truth has become little more than a consumer choice to very many people.
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January 8, 2008 at 7:22 AM
Paul:
In a post I just finished, I used the following about ‘truth’. If you have 4 minutes, click away:
January 8, 2008 at 7:24 AM
Very well said Paul. “Truth” is indeed a commodity for sale. I see that attitude everyday dealing with the public. People believe that the world revolves around them and their needs. Truth has nothing to do with facts, but with what feels good and what’s on sale.
January 8, 2008 at 7:48 AM
Hey Paul…So true…And it’s become even worse with this administration…It’s not the facts that count anymore but the spin one puts on them.
January 8, 2008 at 8:46 AM
Reality has a well known bias…
January 8, 2008 at 9:35 AM
Agree with all comments, Paul. Truth is never absolute, but something to strive for. Political /advertising truth? Ha! That is manipulation and propaganda. My radar goes off whenever someone is trying to sell me something, whether political, products, or religion.
Truth is subjective, anyway, except perhaps the search for it in science. But in that refuge, it is a given that “truths” evolve (ahem) over time as our knowledge grows.
GOPers and Democrats actually have some “truth” in their platforms. But I am not voting Republican – see post of Rambodoc’s blog if you want.
Listened to an audiobook several years ago, “Wisdom of Crowds”. I disagree with it now. The majority may be correct in flocking to good restaurants, or raving about a good movie, book, or funny YouTube Clip….but the flip side is crowds can be uninformed lemmings too. Guess that’s the human condition.
January 8, 2008 at 8:13 PM
Good posting Paul! And so many things to think about. What strikes me off the bat is how accommodating we are to false beliefs. We politely accept someone’s right to ignore evidence, and their right to dismiss logic. And like you say, these beliefs are paraded out as if they are equally valid to any other beliefs. And current administration practices, including our Canadian wannabe Republican government, do not help at all. If anything, they validate this absurdity by pursuing reality challenged policies.
January 8, 2008 at 9:58 PM
Unfortunately truth does not seem to matter that much these days, what seems to matter more these days is truthiness – the feeling that something is correct, The gut feeling of being right. Many people seem to have the “I am right, you are wrong, end of discussion” mentality without going into the details of an argument.
January 8, 2008 at 11:46 PM
Very well written post Paul.
//we live in an intellectually spoiled age when even presidential candidates think they can legitimately pick and choose which facts to believe // It is not even the presidential candidates but presidential candidates (politicians) more than anybody else who can pick and choose the facts and manipulate them according to their convenience. Their success in elections depends on how cleverly they can decieve people. I saw Hillary Clinton nearly in tears trying to show that her sole aim to run for elections was to serve her country. I have seen this drama here in India day in and out and understand what it means. I don’t hold any grudge against her or any other politician because they are all same.
January 8, 2008 at 11:59 PM
@Shefaly: That’s an excellent clip, Shefaly. Thanks for posting that! Much as I detest the character played by Nicholson, he makes some good points about the inability of folks to handle the truth.
@Brian: The sad thing is people are being trained, as good consumers, to think the world revolves around them and their needs — and that truth is nothing more than another consumer good.
@Nezha: The current Administration has taken the denial of truth to a new low — and just look at what a mess they’ve made of things by doing so.
@Webs:
I think the notion reality has a bias is a witty recognition of the fact truth has become a consumer choice.
@Jackie: I lost my faith in crowds when the US reelected Bush. Until then, I thought there might be some wisdom in what the majority believed.
@AOS: Yes, we’ve come so far that we now think people have a right to be irrational and in denial of the truth.
@Amina: “Truthiness” is a wonderfully apt way to describe what people look for these days!
@Pr3rna: I think you might be right — the retreat from truth is being led by the politicians.
January 9, 2008 at 2:20 AM
To quote Multatuli: “There is no such thing as the truth and perhaps not even this is true.”
If we should believe Multatuli could it not be that out of fear we are shopping for something that does not exsist, escaping the idea of being a fictional being in a fictional world . To have faith in a fake concept like truth perhaps could be a way to have hope for live.
Braudillard once said that:”Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibilty. It is like advertising and its same effect is achieved – commitment to a scenario.”
Maybe the mistake Huckabee makes isn’t the denial of truth(opional truth, believe) but the lack acceptable signs of credibilty he’s giving us in order to confirm the reality we imagine?
January 9, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Excellent article, Paul. I think you hit the nail on the head on many points. While I respect anyone’s right to believe whatever they want, that doesn’t mean I want someone who believes something irrational teaching my children or running my country. Judgment had to come into play too or we might as well give up on any kind of critical thinking or search for knowledge and truth.
January 9, 2008 at 11:11 AM
to take an oppositional POV RE: your quote:
“I lost my faith in crowds when the US reelected Bush. Until then, I thought there might be some wisdom in what the majority believed.”
But the majority DID elect Dems. What u saw were dirty politics, not public mandate.
January 9, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Yes, truth is a consumer choice. I wish that “bad truths” could be taken off the market when consumer choice turns against them. Great post, Paul.
January 9, 2008 at 4:33 PM
well stated.
January 10, 2008 at 3:27 AM
Good post, Paul.
I go against some of the people I am fond of, like Jackie and Purnima. Truth is not relative. If it were, Huckabee would be as right as you are to your view on evolution.
Truth is a verifiable absolute. It is that which is consonant with reality. when it concerns things which are not proven or fully known, it cannot be used as a concept. However, this does not confer truth or an element of it if someone uses irrational premises to counter what you don’t know.
For example, if I don’t know yet why you are having a fever and rash (in spite of all the tests I have done), I just need to say I don’t know the truth of why you are suffering. This does not allow you to say that it must be because God (or an evil spirit or ghost) has punished you for the cat you ran over last night.
The technique for arriving at a conclusion has to follow the objective ways of acquiring knowledge(including perception and conception).
Hence, truth is an absolute (epistemologically speaking), whereas specific truths may be relative (a glass is half empty AND half full, for example).
Whew! That should have been a blog post on its own!
January 10, 2008 at 4:29 AM
@Purnima: Good to see you! Welcome to my blog! I have to disagree to some extent with Multatuli. While I don’t understand how there can be such a thing as absolute truth, I can understand how there can be such a thing as circumstantial truth. After all, science seems to be based on circumstantial truth.
@Ordinary Girl: Quite right! Had I any children, I wouldn’t want them taught that truth is whatever feels good. It seems to me that would not prepare them for understanding science.
@Jackie: Yes, I had forgotten how questionable the election results in 2000 and 2004 were. Thanks for the reminder!
@Stevo: I wish that were the case too. But it seems that “bad” truths are seldom entirely defeated. They keep coming back, generation after generation.
@Meleah: Thank you!
@Doc: Like you, I’m not at all prepared to assert that Huckabee’s views on the truth of evolution have any merit — and hence, it would be inconsistent of me to hold that truth is relative. Yet, I don’t understand what absolute truth is. At least, I don’t understand how it could be demonstrated to exist. As far as I can see, truth is neither relative, nor absolute, but circumstantial.