Truth

Long back in my school days, we had to study a subject called "Moral Science". It was basically about God, good habits, ethical behaviour and compassion. Being in English medium, the lessons were heavily influenced by Christian tenets. Don't really know whether it has helped me or my class mates in life, but that is another story.

One of the things that was prominent in those lessons was the value of truth. We were always told to be truthful as truth and only truth prevails. But over the years , I have found out that truth may prevail but it can be be very uncomfortable and also dangerous, at some times. In effect, truth is like a medicine , which is bitter at times.

So, like medicines which may have side-effects, truth is often diluted and packaged in capsules to ensure that it doesn't damage. Sometimes, the absence of truth and even half-truths are used as palliatives. The excuse given is of course that it is for the greater good.

But like everything, truth has two sides to it . So the concept of alternate truth emerged. Earlier under the traditional information systems truth was what people got to know. It was accepted without much questioning as the alternate truth reached us quite late. By then, the truth which we accepted became such an integral part of our lives that dismantling it would be inconvenient for us. So, the alternate truth was resisted to maintain the status quo.

With the digital revolution, information is instantaneous. And not very surprisingly , it is now the time of alternate truth with its cousins, untruth and falsehood to rule the roost. Because truth, as mentioned earlier, is bitter and therefore psychologically not acceptable.