Hugh J. Curran Informed Comment
In classical Greek “opinion” is referred to as “doxa” with a clear distinction between “doxa” and “truth” (alethia). We have a President in the U.S. who gives daily information by way of a news program called “Truth Social”. “Truth”, to him, seems to be transactional, expressed in his 51st state rhetoric directed at Canada, with additional threats against Greenland, But his “truth” is, in reality, opinion (doxa), in which his assertions are almost always, very misleading.
Being misled is the essence of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which tells a story of people shackled in a cave facing a wall, watching images projected in front of them. Their reality is based on these flickering images, and their comprehension based on opinions(doxa) shared with each other. When one decides to unshackle himself and emerges into the light of the sun, realizing that he had been seeing only images, not reality itself. In this allegory the Sun is a metaphor for Truth and Knowledge.
Mark Twain’s humorous phrase: “Lies, damned lies, and statistics” illustrates how we are easily deceived, even by numbers, which can give a false appearance of objective information. Twain also notes that “Truth is the most valuable thing we have.” The Irish philosopher Edmund Burke used the phrase: “economy of truth”, meaning prudent management while others shifted the phrasing: “be economical with the truth”, implying deliberate untruthfulness.
A Hebrew proverb states “the Truth is a heavy burden that few are willing to carry”. Mahatma Gandhi defined “Truth” (Satya) as awakening to a deeper reality. To Gandhi “God is Truth” and “Truth is God”, meaning Truth is the foundational reality behind existence while “relative truth” is dependent upon conventional views and opinions.
Relative truths are easily forgotten, like the story of the “River Lethe” in Greek mythology which represents souls drinking its waters to let go of memories of their mortal life. Yet when the letter “A” “is added it becomes “Alethe” (recollection), an active process of awakening to truth and reality.
Christian theology defines Truth as a dependable reality and Christ as the ultimate embodiment of truth, contrasted with self-deception, and spiritual blindness..
Other religions are equally devoted to awakening to Truth. In Buddhism it centers on the practical realities of human existence and liberation by way of the Four Noble Truths and the Path out of suffering, as well as the doctrine of the Two Truths (absolute Truth (paramartha satya) and relative truth (samvriti satya)
In Islam Muhammad was known as Al-Sadiq (The Truthful) and Al-Amin (The Trustworthy). The Quran urges believers to align themselves with the truthful and stand firmly for justice, even if it goes against personal interests. Hadiths (traditions of the Prophet) teach that truthfulness guides a person toward righteousness, whereas lying leads to moral decay and hypocrisy.
How do these definitions of Truth relate to wars in Iran, Israel and the Ukraine. The oft-repeated phrase that “the first casualty of war is truth” is reflected in the conflicts currently afflicting us. Like many conflicts they are emotionally driven with rationalized justifications, a compulsive need to demonize and dehumanize adversaries.
There is a medieval Welsh legend illustrating truth-telling.It involves Lludd and Llefelys, brothers ruling Wales and France. Three plagues by malicious forces menaced their kingdoms, which were guided by demons capable of overhearing conversations taking place anywhere. The brothers agreed to meet in the middle of the channel to discuss how to handle the plagues, so they constructed a long brass horn to communicate without being overheard. But the demons infiltrated the horn and distorted their words so that only hateful, hostile insults could be heard. Llefelys poured a medicinal wine into the brass horn to cleanse it so that the virtue of the wine flushed out the demon. At that point they were able to communicate without deceptive speech and made plans to save their kingdoms from the plagues.
Miscommunication often results in bitter conflicts, especially those taking place in the Middle East as misunderstandings continue to be fomented. America has deliberately aligned itself with Israel, which is intent on creating a Jewish homeland carved out of traditional Palestine territory. Although both sides accuse each other of bad faith and malign intent, a few Israeli scholars have taken the side of Palestinians, Ilan Pappe being a well-known example, who has written a widely read book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
As Pappe notes, political bias obscures Truth-telling, making it difficult to discern deeper realities.The demons of misunderstanding proliferate, especially since ownership of the land is the most central concern with both resorting to historical narratives to prove their claims. Palestinians state that for many centuries they have had continuous habitation and ancestral presence in the region. The Israeli side looks to biblical narratives to support their claims, although it must be said that academic specialists do not consider biblical history to be a true measure of accuracy, but also acknowledge the spiritual value of biblical scripture.
There is a similar misunderstanding in the Ukraine-Russian debacle. Ukrainians insist they have been in possession of the land for over a millennium and have a distinctly different history than Russia. Professor Timothy Snyder, an historian, has taught courses concerning the “Makings of Modern Ukraine” and supports the Ukrainian interpretation of history. In this account Swedish Vikings (known as Varangians or Rus) arrived in Kiev by river routes in 800 CE for the purpose of trading.. Oleg of Novgorod, also a Swedish Varangian, in 882 CE captured Kiev and established Kievan Rus, in which event Ukrainians consider to be the origin of Ukraine. In the Ukrainian view it was originally independent of Russia and made more independent byseveral centuries of connection to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At this time a distinct Ukrainian culture and language evolved with even the Orthodox churches of Moscow and Kiev developing separately.
But, according to the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, Ukrainians were a former province of Russia and their lineage is traced to Kiev, the “mother of all Russian cities”. He uses the Kievan Rus’ origin story to insist that Ukrainian sovereignty is fictitious and that modern Ukraine was carved out by Soviet leaders although Ukrainian historians such as Dr Björn Alexander Düben, insists that Ukraine has a long historical independence from Russia.
Truthfulness about the origins of a nation are often obscured by a need to create a narrative to justify possession. When doxa (relative truth/opinion) is insisted upon it looks for a coherent theory to correspond to whatever fits into one particular group’s narrative. Yet, Truth, on a deeper level, is a search for fairness, clarity and freedom from obscurities.
Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead. Public Domain. Picryl
In Israel, scholars and archaeologists consider the biblical narrative to be an allegorical and spiritual text and not an historical document, Yet the leaders of Israel interpret the biblical narrative to justify expropriating land from Palestinians who have lived there for millennia. Western powers have been supplying weapons used to devastate Gaza, resulting in the slaughter of 20,000 children and 55,000 adults while bombing Gaza’s residences, schools and hospitals into rubble. The complicity has been unconscionable, even to the point of allowing extremist Israeli leadership to label indigenous Palestinians as terrorists, especially when they resort to violence to resist the massacres.
Eventually, the horrific nature of the mass killings being perpetrated in Gaza will need to be confronted by Western nations. Israeli historians such as Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappe, the Canadia scholar, Yakov Rabkin, as well as holocaust and Genocide scholars including Omer Bartov., are making their research available to a wider audience. In this way the enormity of what has taken place will have to be faced by those who were complicit, including the governments of the U.S, UK, Britain and the EU which have provided the weapons of destruction. Their studied indifference to the moral wrongs perpetrated upon the indigenous people of Gaza and Palestine will have to be reckoned with.
Omer Bartov has noted that the moral burden that conscientious Germans have carried for 80 years due to the Holocaust, will resonate with the moral burden western powers will have to shoulder due to a complicity of indifference to the slaughter of innocents in Gaza, many still buried under the rubble.
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