The most difficult task in life is knowing the truth. Many may dispute this statement by saying that there are even more difficult things in life. An aircraft pilot or astronaut, for example, could say that the piloting job involves understanding the intricate dynamics of physical laws, hence, is the most difficult one. A heart or neuro surgeon, similarly, can say that the job at hand will top in the list of difficult things, for it involves patient and subtle-yet-complex handling of vital human organs, the success or failure of which can be life or death for patients.
If we take a few examples from the other side of the spectrum, that is, trivial affairs, we will see that difficulty is inalienable in the planning and execution of even such seemingly trivial matters, too. For a vegetable vendor, the quantity of vegetables to be sourced for the daily business could be the most difficult decision because balancing perishability factor against turnover volume will be a tightrope walk for him as he needs to serve his loyal clients without stockout situation, simultaneously, should not end up with stocks of unsold items at the end of the day. Despite each of these jobs being justifiably claimed as the most difficult thing, I have no hesitation to reiterate that knowing truth, still, is the most difficult task in life, and at the same time, these claims for the most difficultness, too, are right because exploring difficulties are attempts to unravel the hidden facts.
“In the court of justice, both parties know the truth. It’s the judge who is on trial.” These are the most matter-of-fact words I had heard about truth in the recent past, and they were from Justice J. R. Midha of the Delhi High Court during his farewell speech. As the honorable Justice says, man — being a social animal — is knowingly or unknowingly put on trial by others, either forcing him to take the tormenting path of knowing truth or smooth sail into the uneventful and ignorant way of letting truth pass. The stressful path involves gauging intentions which is a difficult act of understanding as intentions can be bamboozled in deceptive words or actions. Words and actions can be hoodwinking but not intentions, for intentions are patently real irrespective of whether they are held by a man who is honest or not. Understanding real intentions enveloped in words and actions, hence, is the way to know the truth.
Understanding intentions is easier said than done. Nonetheless, dichotomy between words and intentions or between actions and intentions is not incognizable for a discerning mind. To discern, man should learn to distance himself from ambiguity by seeking facts involved. In other words, understanding is the search for facts, and that search needs to be sealed from the biased elements of emotions and belief systems which are both inherent and accruable in a man. Many a time, facts can be irretrievably mired in the ambiguities of beliefs like ideology, servility as well as emotions like liking, love, adulation, hero worship, etc. The rampaging marketing phenomenon of ‘social media influencers’ is an apt example of how an emotion like adulation is exploited by vested interests to create a smokescreen in order to effectively convey a message of goodness even when it may not be. There is no reason for social media influencers to promote a brand unless they are paid for it by the brand or that they gain media mileage from the equity of the brand. Without understanding this not-so-subtle fact, thanks to the smokescreen of adulation, “the influenced” chooses to believe the influencer when she/he says that a particular brand is the best value for the money. Parents getting influenced by the adverts starring film actors and buying educational apps, nutritional products, etc. can be an example of the emotion of hero worship unknowingly smashing the window of truth. Similarly, belief systems like ideology, servility, etc. pull in the opaque curtain between man and truth.
Discerning, the search for facts, is founded on reasoning which demands objectivity. It is impossible to be objective when reasoning is allowed to be stringed by imagination. Marcus Aurelius(AD121-180), the philosopher king, said, “Wipe out imagination.” The quote is about the need to avoid adding imagination to one’s reasoning faculty which evaluates and concludes the state of a man on its merit. Imagination is difficult to be figured out as it is more than assumptions and also has the careful feat of allowing presumptions to correctly aid a man in decision making. Assumptions are prejudices with no history of known existence. For example, we generally assume it will be true when people like acquaintances and kith and kin tell that they are in financial stress, hence, do need some level of help from us. Presumptions are estimates in the light of tested assumptions.
Every man is socially bound to deal with assumptions and presumptions whose veracity is a herculean task to fathom as he goes on dealing with strangers, acquaintances and kith and kin, and many of whom lie, habitually or otherwise. Instances like a friend telling a man, who is waiting for the rendezvous with him, that he will arrive in two minutes even when the friend — a habitual liar — knows that it will take another 15 minutes to reach, it is highly likely that the man will believe his friend because he assumes that his friend is honest. However, a discerning man will seek more information like the current location, the strength of traffic flow, etc. to make presumptions to aid him to know if the friend is telling the truth or not. Either way, it will become an incident for him to make a database for making future evaluation of the friend — to accept or discount or inflate his words to arrive at the truth? There are people who distort facts and figures in order to claim undue advantage or as a habit to cast aspersions on others. How do we deal with them? Again, a discerning mind will ask the right questions to arrive at the facts, and even if it fails at the first instance, such a mind will build up a database of such people, which tells it how much to discount or inflate the words of those people to arrive at the facts. However, man should make deliberate effort to not make the mistake of using such databases as the only source of finding truth, for everything, including people, is prone to change.
The world had not progressed from the time immemorial to this ultra modern-times of Artificial Intelligence and space tourism without making assumptions. Though presumptions are more fact-leaning, assumptions have their place in arriving at truth. From our school days, we are used to this: let’s assume that…. So most of the things start with an assumption that something is true; then, we go on to test those assumptions for their veracity. Here, the operative word is ‘test.’ Every man should test his assumptions to know if something is true or someone is telling truth. How can a man do it? I remember ex-U.S.A. President George W. Bush once telling this: “Trust should be verifiable.” Trust is an assumption that someone is reliable, and that assumption should be verified for its correctness by evaluating the actions of that someone. In this process, assumptions should not be allowed to be influenced by emotions and beliefs as they create the smokescreen which disables the propensity to question. An inquisitive mind without being influenced by emotions and beliefs is the minimum prerequisite to test assumptions. The tested assumptions not only helps to actualize man’s urge to know truth but also add to his ability to see through things in future as every tested assumption is a wherewithal for future presumptions.
The burden of a guarded mind resulting from lies is probably the worst thing a man can carry because lies tie a man to the past, possibly punctuating and bogging him down. Being honest, however, does not have any negative implications for the past but opens the door for present and future rewards. It is not necessary that man must answer every question that comes to him, nor is that he has to tell everything about him to anyone in life; man can say: ‘no comments; but when he speaks, he must speak truthfully; and it is extremely difficult for a man who speaks truthfully to do something dishonest.
Nowhere Perspectives 