Truth is Subjective

Truth is Subjective

What do I believe? I believe in the goodness of humans, in the ability of individuals to better themselves. I believe that no matter how bad a situation is, it will always get better. I know this from experience-I’ve been through my own share of emotional pain, having been diagnosed with PTSD by two therapists- but a situation always improves. Eventually you realize that you won’t always be forced to obey another person; eventually you can choose to free yourself, just as Neo did in The Matrix. 

While oppressed, he was unable to see his lack of freedom-essentially a feed farm for robotic life- until a chaotic combination of experiences forced him to make a choice. He knew which choice to make based on intuition, one of the primary ways of knowing.There are many ways of knowing, including emotion,but often, emotion is tossed aside by our society as being “weak’; this is primarily the fault of a system that devalues vulnerability and places too high a value on thinking about a situation as emotionally  removed as possible. As Olivia mentioned in class, this type of knowing- being highly rational and not emotional at all- is akin to being a sociopath. 

There is no one way of knowing that is more reliable than all the others, just as there is no “one” truth that is greater than others. Of late, I’ve come to believe that the world isn’t just black and white, it’s made of shades of grey; there are multiple perspectives with which to view the world and just because one perspective is different than mine, doesn’t necessarily make it wrong. One resource that taught me this is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave-different perspectives are experienced, and nothing is as it really seems. Having less emotion doesn’t make what one knows more reliable- some might even say that it makes it less reliable. Having a lot of emotion- so long as it isn’t a negative emotion such as rage that overwhelms us- makes us more vulnerable, and by being more vulnerable, we open ourselves up to what others think and believe. Everyone possesses their own personal truth, and has opinions on many different topics, from politics, to human rights. However, these opinions are often tainted by confirmation bias- many of us apply our preconceptions about topics to new information we receive about them- a way of seeing the world through our own lense, even if it isn't objective or fair.

Truth isn’t as objective as academics may have us believe. Truth is multifaceted, it is multidimensional. Like a kaleidoscope, where we all see the same thing but each minute the slightest shift in movement alters our perspective. Who we are as individuals and our experiences  shape what we know to be true. I think that my personal truth- what I know about who I am and what I want- is a much more roundabout process than figuring out what my stance on a hot topic is.