“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde. After learning the “truth” unit, I got the idea that “sometimes what people believes will change by the effect of the common beliefs, which defined as ‘truth’, in order to fit in the society; however, some people have their own strong beliefs that are hiding behind the ‘mask’”.
When I question myself “what is truth”, without expectations, I find out that I cannot control myself from being upset because I have seen a lot of people, who intend to find out the truth, give up their insistence on their beliefs due to the unexpected long future path to the truth. There are many people get lost on the halfway to the truth because they have been puzzled by the lies and exaggerated fantasies from the outside world. I am not sure if I have enough courage for me to keep seeking for the truth; and I have no idea about why we have to seek for the real truth: is this because we want to prove to the word that we were right or we need to find a place we belong to. Truth is complicated because it seems impossible to find the real truth.
When I was young, my beliefs were shaped by my parents and teachers. They taught me about their beliefs and tried to make me have the same belief as them. It was good when I was young, and had no idea of the world or how to express my own feeling. However, it became not that good when my parents forced me to believe in the same religion as them, and my teachers gave me too many rules that limit my imagination. Moreover, I am the type of person who always care about others’ ideas, and that makes me change my own idea sometimes in order to fit others’ opinions. Little by little, I lose my own opinion and follow others’ ideas even if the idea is not what I mean. Sometimes I want to express myself; however, I am afraid that people will disagree with me or I cannot clearly state my opinion. There will be a lot of concerns and worries flowing in my head so that I will hide my belief under the “mask”. Therefore, I always followed my parents’ expectations to finish all the tasks they gave to me. However, as I grow up and get touched with the outside world, I now believe that it is time for myself to make decisions. Therefore, the truth for me is to believe in myself, in every decision I make.
This idea that the search for the truth pressures people to conform and stray from their inner truth really resonates with me. I believe that is pertinent to stay true to who your are but at the same time, it is crucial to realize when you are wrong in order to improve yourself. I also loved how you defined your own personal truth: to believe in yourself. I think that this is a truth that we should all have.
ReplyDeletePeople around children needs to guide them to find their own truth instead of forcing them to believe certain "truth". Although under the pressure of authority, children will believe the truth, but they lacks ability to pursue the truth. There are many truth in this world, they could not always depend on others to know the truth.
ReplyDeleteI really like your interpretation of how our beliefs are formed. The fact that we live in this world reveals that we are all shaped by our environment. Although I am more interested in the scientific truth, I agree with your idea that the personal truth is the decisions. In every part of our life we need to make decisions and these decisions give the direction of our life. How can they not be the truth for us, as they explain the essence of our life?
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason to find truth is to understand the world better. People search for their truth, or agree with others, to u dear stand the complicated workings of the world. By expressing your own beliefs you may find that other people believe the same. I agree that we are shaped by the people around us, and also our experiences. We see the world differently depending on how we grew up, what we experienced, and what we were taught or told to believe, or what we saw people we looked up to believing. Our beliefs are very strongly influenced by those around us, but, as you mention in the last paragraph, as we get older we can learn about other beliefs and ideas in order to find our own thoughts on the world.
ReplyDelete