Dangerously Lost In Translation

The truth seems to be a distant artifact of today’s reality.

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. As the joke goes, you can pick which one of these three best suits your needs. But the reality is that truth often seems to be less data-driven and much more a function of the pundit that is professing this new reality or urgent observation. The path from “data” to “decision” can be a long and confusing path. And, like an insidious game of telephone, it can be a path of obfuscation, manipulation, and corruption. Aristotle wrote that truth is a fundamental pillar of human achievement—a true north to which we advance forward.

Today, that truth is less an objective reality and much more a subjective presentation of bits and bytes that are carefully constructed to create a narrative that’s hardly driven by Aristotle’s perspective on truth. The result is the barking idiot, spewing empty rhetoric that, on first blush, may be factually correct, but is built on nothing more than a superficially acquired handful of facts that either align with our own bias or just set into motion a maelstrom of confusion. From the how to the why to the who, the contemporary dissemination of facts, and dare I say wisdom, lies far from the truth.