Personal truths are things you may cherish but for which there's no real way to convince others who disagree, except through heated arguments, coercion, or force. This forms the basis of most people's opinions and is often harmless to keep to yourself or discuss over a beer.
Is Jesus your savior? Was Muhammad the last prophet of God on Earth? Should the government support the poor? Are current immigration laws too strict or too lenient? Is Beyoncé your Queen? In the Star Trek universe, which captain are you? Kirk or Picard—or Janeway?
Differences in opinion enrich a nation's diversity and should be cherished and respected in any free society, as long as people remain free to disagree with one another, and most importantly, remain open to reasonable arguments that can change their minds.
Sadly, many people's behavior on social media goes in the opposite direction. Their formula: find an opinion they disagree with and unleash waves of anger and outrage because your viewpoint is different from theirs. Social, political , or legislative attempts to force people to agree with your personal truth ultimately become authoritarianism.
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Personal truth possesses a power that transcends all limitations within each individual. Photo: Belief Works. |
In wine connoisseurs, there's a Latin adage, "In vino veritas," meaning "In wine there is truth." That's quite audacious for a beverage containing 12 to 14 percent ethanol, a molecule known to disrupt brain function and (unrelatedly) coincidentally prevalent in interstellar space.
However, this witty remark implies that a group of drinkers will naturally become calm and honest with each other. Perhaps that applies to some extent with other alcoholic beverages. Even so, very few of us have ever witnessed a fight break out between two wine drinkers. Gin? Maybe. Whisky? Definitely. Chardonnay? Impossible.
Imagine the absurdity of a line like this in a movie script: “I’ll beat you, but only after I finish my Merlot!” Perhaps the same could be said about marijuana. Smoking dens aren’t typically places where fights break out. Evidence, albeit anecdotal, supports the idea that honest truth can foster understanding and harmony. Perhaps that’s because honesty is better than deceit, and truth is more beautiful than lies.
Far beyond the truth derived from alcohol, and a close relative of personal truth, is political truth. These thoughts and ideas resonate with your emotions but gradually become unshakeable truths due to the relentless repetition by media forces wanting you to believe them—a fundamental characteristic of propaganda.
Such belief systems almost always imply or explicitly state that who you are, or what you do, or how you do it, is superior to the people you wish to subdue or control.
It is not mysterious that people are willing to sacrifice their own lives, or take the lives of others, to support what they believe in. Generally, the less factual evidence there is to support an ideology, the higher the likelihood that a person is willing to die for that ideal.
Source: https://znews.vn/chan-ly-ca-nhan-co-suc-manh-huy-diet-the-nao-post1651799.html
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