The Truth
A little annoyed today just in general. I think I’m peopling too much or something.
Bleh.
I tweeted yesterday about a thoughtful session I had in the shower as one does, the notion of “truth” and what that means.
Say person 1 is directed to look at an object on a table and is asked what color it is. The person observes it, notes the color, compares it to other colors the person knows, gets a match, says it’s green.
Person 2 is directed to look at the same object and is also asked what color it is. They observe it, note the color, compare it to other colors the person knows, gets a match, says it’s blue.
Difference between the 2 people? Person 2 can’t really tell the difference between blue and green because of the way their brain interprets color.
But is the fact that they see it as blue a lie or their truth?
Who really decides what is true or what is not?
For the most part, pretty much everything is filtered through perception based on past experiences/bias/insecurities/perspectives/etc, so how one person sees something is VASTLY different than how another might.
Also a complicated notion, what you perceive to be true, can be based on a filter you yourself may not even be aware of (like not knowing there is a difference between blue and green visually…or having a deep seated issue you aren’t aware of that causes you to see certain situations in a certain light.)
So again what is “the truth”?
Consider even people’s accounts of an event or series of events. When you observe their depiction, you again do so through the lens of your own perception. You are observing their observations (through their biased lens) through your own biased lens.
Here, “the truth” again is an illusive concept, because there’s no telling how many different aspects are coloring this account….so really everything you observe should ALWAYS be taken with a grain of salt…even things you hear straight from the source of a person who was there.
So then we think about, if there is no way to solidify what a truth is, how can we define really anything? How can we come together to achieve shared goals if we technically cannot define a simple word or concept as a collective?
It seems then that definitions of “truth” are still subjective, it mostly comes down to aligning or agreeing with others who share your perceptions. Not a foreign concept, this is how you choose friends, or your job, or your political affiliation, or your church…basically your social groups. Even then, you may not agree on EVERYTHING, but there will be a good percentage of shared somethings with each of these groups you affiliate with.
Again from that, what about the people who exist outside of your group…people who have a different definition of what the truth is?
Are they living lies, or just according to their own perception? What makes their perceptions less valid than yours other than the fact that theirs’ does not mirror yours. Just as your lens is colored by all that has happened to you, so is theirs’….so who is more “correct”? Who is speaking more of “the truth”?
Interesting ideas to consider. I don’t have an answer, but I do take all this into account when engaging with others. I never take anything really as “truth” only perception…and I stay open to considering all ideas, ESPECIALLY ones that aren’t in harmony with mine. I also try hard to consider their perspective from THEIR PERSPECTIVE and not through the lens of my own projections.
