By Meghan Peterson, PhD
Editors Note: The views contained herein do not necessarily reflect those held by the other staff.
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Why is it seemingly difficult to distinguish between a truth and a lie? Why has conversation around fact versus fiction become so politicized (by politicized, I mean the process by which concepts, ideas, processes become a site of ideological contention)? Why is the pursuit of veracity (derived from the Latin word for truth, “veritas”) met with resentment and anger?
That the modern-day quest to uncover facts and truths encounters an increasingly intense degree of hostility indicates something pernicious is at work. The marketplace of ideas, which helps form the basis for a free, open, democratic society, is jeopardized when hostility rises to the level of violence or threats of violence against those wishing both to consume and share truths. The millennial generation has adopted a particularly virulent practice of brandishing lies in one breath and sheltering under the mantra of political correctness in the next.
19th century English political philosopher John Stuart Mill advocated for “diversity of opinion” in the context of citizens freely exchanging ideas as “advantageous” to society in which individuals can evaluate “conflicting doctrines” in order that truths may emerge. That is challenging to do, however, when “diversity of opinion” is suppressed in the wake of hyper-curated millennial social norms, such as political correctness and ideological uniformity.
By any other standard, it would be madness to say that lies are preferential to truths – as a matter either of personal or public policy. It would be madness to say that it is warm outside when it is below freezing. It would be madness to say that it is Thursday when the actual day is Saturday. It would be madness to say that it is nighttime when it is morning.
But such corkscrew-like contortions are on the rise. I offer three current instances in which the search for truth faces obstacles – especially as seen in American millennial dialogue.
One, we are expected to believe that socialism is the pathway to greater freedom and improved quality of life. The historical record shows the opposite. In fact, Karl Marx, the father of communism (although, in fairness, Marx’s newspaper partner Friedrich Engels provided much of the brainpower behind his thinking) noted explicitly that socialism was an inferior, intermediate step to communism. At its core, communism is anti-religion, anti-family and anti-individualism; the state (government) is everything and subsumes everything in its vast reach. Communism does not exactly have the best economic, religious, educational or human rights portfolio.
Two, we are urged to consider the possibility that girls can be boys and vice versa. It is one thing to instruct girls and boys to treat each other with utmost respect and dignity. It is another to indulge the false – and falsifiable – concept that a girl is a boy and a boy is a girl. It is akin to claiming that 1+1 = 4. The latter statement is false and falsifiable. So is the former.
Three, we risk the label of “anti-woman” or “anti-reproductive care” if we oppose state legislation (for examples, New York and Virginia) permitting acts that, by any other understanding, constitute infanticide. As if reproductive care entails killing a viable baby after it is born. There is nothing reproductive or caring contained within that specific action. To argue otherwise is madness.
Yet, such scenarios of social madness are trendy. They are all the rage. Individuals immersed in these states of madness, I mean, social goals, will claim that those who do not agree with them are the mad ones.
If pursuing the truth makes me mad, then I choose madness – truth – in March (my apologies to readers who thought this piece was going to cover basketball March madness)…and for that matter, all year ‘round. I would rather be mad than sane by the standard of robber-barons of truths in the free, democratic marketplace of ideas.
Peterson is Composition Editor of Haddam News.
Meghan Peterson, PhD nailed it. Socialism, gender obscurity and infanticide. We have a problem. What is truth? I would not blame it on the Millennials, yet. Remember they are only 15 to 34 years old.
Once they have their own financial obligations and wealth a lot of them will wake up and become conservatives just like the Boomer Hippies. I hope this transition will be accompanied by logic and reason. We’ll see. There is much more to the story demographically. A lot of forces at play.