The truth of truth

Why facts and truth allow us to be the best that we can be.

truth

/truːθ/

noun

the quality or state of being true.

a fact or belief that is accepted as true.

Even the definitions of truth are hedging bets. A fact is something which can be demonstrated as true and seen as such by more than one individual. A belief is not necessarily a fact but an opinion, and it seems, if it is generally accepted then it is considered to be true.  That may well be the case.

We know from history how flawed this can be. Women were once deemed to be inferior in mind and body and that was a truth for centuries which is now no longer held to be such a truth. And it was never a fact.

We could argue that truth is in essence demonstrable facts but it is tricky because some people do have or hold a different form of facts which they call truth.

Palestine is a classic example. Many people put absolute faith in religious writings and consider that because Jews had a tribal kingdom in Palestine thousands of years ago, they have a right to claim it today. That is their truth.

When we bring law, justice and human rights into play, the truth is that no religion has a right to claim land simply because followers lived there thousands of years ago. If such a belief were a truth then every religion would have the same right and Muslims could claim much of Europe, where they lived for centuries, all of India, where they lived for centuries and Christians could also claim India, where they lived for centuries and many other parts of the world. Christians ruled Istanbul for more than a thousand years but no-one could claim they had a right to invade Turkey and set up a Christian State. No-one would claim Muslims had a right to invade Spain and take back Madrid, Granada and many other cities.

Most people would accept it was a truth that religions do not have rights to claim lands where their followers once lived. Except it seems, in the case of Judaism and Palestine.

This is where international norms of law and justice are so important and where civilized principles need to be applied to establish a common truth. That is easier said than done particularly where religion is involved because religion is often not just about belief, it is often about fervent, passionate, fearful, fanatical belief where facts are just too hard and even more inconvenient. It should not be that way because the best of all religions is scholarly, compassionate, wise and sensible. Things tend to go awry however with all beliefs and never more so when they involve life, death and the meaning of it all finding its way through individual human minds.

The concept of truth and justice go back to the very beginnings of recorded human history and no doubt further. And that is because a society which operates from a basis of justice, facts, truth, will be a more harmonious, more connected, more empowered society. Justice creates a solid foundation for the difficult task of managing human nature. This was something all religions have understood and promoted and something which good rulers and leaders never forgot. Weighing the scales so they balance and are Just is something humans have always understood.

Courts of law work to gather facts so they can establish truth. It is a matter of justice, a word which is derived from Just:

just

/dʒʌst/

adjective

1. based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair.
   
   Some might argue that morally right has religious connotations, but, in fact it is just another word for JUST - you act in a way that you or people in general consider to be right, honest, or acceptable. No-one is in any doubt that being fair is the best way to be. So, being Just, is being fair. Everyone wants that but not everyone wants it for everyone. And that is where things go terribly wrong.
   
   Humans have evolved in a slow struggle to establish norms of truth which apply equally to everyone. Would most people prefer to live in a Just world, a world where what is morally right and fair is upheld and defended? I think they would. Why would they not? Which brings us back to Do unto Others for any concept of justice must apply to everyone and not just ourselves. If we do something unjust to others then that is wrong, regardless of what reasons, truths, facts, we believe we may have to justify the wrong.

   
   Most people take it as a truth that occupation, colonisation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide are simply wrong. Most also believe that murder and theft are wrong. But some believe they are justified on some counts. Such things were not questioned in centuries past, unless you were the one being crushed under the powerful boot, but in this age, most people would say they were just plain wrong. That as truth and fact, injustice is wrong.
   
   It is a fact and it is true that Israel has military control over all of Palestine and denies its people justice, freedom and human and civil rights. That is wrong. It can never be justified because the fact of the matter and the truth of the matter say it is just wrong because it is unjust. This is why holding to principles of facts and truth is so important and applying them to everyone is even more important because unless we do that, we are being unjust. But truth and facts can be chameleons when processed through the human mind. Or rather, they can appear to be because truth and facts do not change, only what we believe about them.

The truth is the truth, as humans in any age define it very often. But it is certainly a good place to start in working to establish facts and truth.

And that is why humans have tried over millennia to develop principles which will allow decisions to be made whether truth is fact or belief, or both.  More important than a fact or belief is the impact it has on who we are as humans and how our society functions. More important questions are: Is it just? Is it fair? Is it healthy? Is it compassionate? Is it reasonable? Is it wise? Would I like to be treated like that?

These questions are sourced in principles common to all spiritual and religious systems and emanate from probably one – would you like what is being done to others, being done to you. Or Do Unto Others What You Would Have Done Unto Yourself. All religions have variations on this important theme, including Judaism, even if most political systems, including Zionism, do not.

It is in asking such questions and formulating principles which defend them that we have evolved from primitive brutality and barbarism on many counts. Not all of course and humans, particularly in war remain as brutally and barbarically primitive as they have ever been. Given a chance too many will commit the sorts of atrocities done in the past. Would the Israelis line the roads with the crucified bodies of Palestinians as Romans did in the past? Probably not but they would certainly construct variations on those themes as would many humans, particularly when at war.

One thing we have seen with the Israeli genocide on Palestine is how little things have changed for human nature and how flimsy are the structures which are supposedly in place to prevent the worst of atrocities. The Israelis ignore all and any rules of war.

Is that a fact, we may ask, that the Israelis have ignored the rules of war? There is solid evidence that they have although as some General once said, once war starts all plans go out of the window and unless a military is well trained and well governed, so too do the rules of war. And for Israel, there has never been a time without war. The State was founded in genocidal war, has functioned through genocidal war and the attack on the Gaza prison is imply more of the same war. Can there be any rules of war for a coloniser and occupier? Probably not because it is not a real war, but a subjugation of the people of the land you have stolen and are determined to keep. What happens when a society has no rules of behaviour or war, toward a certain group whom they subjugate? Nothing good that is for sure.

We then need to ask ourselves, is it a fact that abiding by rules of war is worthwhile? Most people would agree that it is and targeting civilians, children, the old, the sick, the crippled, the unarmed, the powerless should, in any civilized society be condemned by any rules of war. It is also a fact that there are those who do not believe in rules of war and who take the view that destroying what is deemed to be enemy, by any means possible, is all that matters. That is the might is right approach which has been the way of things with humans for millennia.

Israel has worked at destroying the Palestinians in every way possible. Their culture, society, universities, schools, hospitals, police, art, literature, history, geography, their land and their life. They have been sending their excavators through cemeteries, turning ancient mosques and churches to rubble, and acting like barbarians of old. This was the way of it thousands of years ago and indeed when the Romans destroyed Carthage and turned it to not just rubble, but gravel, as Israel is doing in Gaza, they also salted the earth to render the land uninhabitable. Israel will hold off on the salt because they just want to render it uninhabitable for the Palestinians so they can take it for themselves. It is deeply troubling to see such things happening in Occupied Palestine in the 21st century.

We have done might is right, slaughter them all, so well recorded in Judaic and Christian religious writings, and most humans decided there were better ways to be.

Is it a fact that the more civilized and humane we become the better our society functions? Is it a truth that love has a greater power than hate? I believe such things are facts and truths, but not everyone does.

Is it a truth that the more we seek to live in the light of our humanity, the better place this world would be? Some might try to deny that but any psychological or anthropological study of human nature and relationships would say that was true. And, because it is true, it has been the goal of humanity for centuries.

A fact and a truth are the same thing. They are something which can be demonstrated to others and understood by others, most of them anyway, as being a true belief or an action sourced in truth. But it is the nuances which are so difficult when dealing with human beliefs. We would all agree that we live on planet earth and that the Moon and Sun exist. They are clearly demonstrated facts which are also beliefs. We have no trouble believing in what we call gravity and only need to jump off a building to demonstrate that fact as a truth.

Where it all gets so hard in being true to truth is when we are talking about human behaviour. There is a slippery element to the human mind and we can twist and turn our way out of many things. Or we think we can.

Which is why, the truth of truth must be sourced in some civilized principles which can be established as facts and accepted as beliefs. Without being true to truth we are indeed lost, because only with truth can we humans find common ground and secure agreement which connects us and allows the pursuit of a common goal -  A better world. Without the support of civilized just principles, not just in war but in life, we become bestial, sadistic, cruel and evil and perhaps that is the lesson Zionist Israel brings to the world – WHAT NOT TO BE AND KNOWING WHY!