Does truth matter?
How is truth discerned?
Or more importantly what is truth?
The German historian and philosopher, Hannah Arendt wrote of the Nazi regime in Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the Banality of Evil…
“This constant lying is not aimed at making people believe a lie, but ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.
A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong.
And such a people, deprived of the power to think and to judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies.
With such a people, you can do whatever you want.”
Further, commenting that the routines of the day to day work of dealing with the Jews became just a job, the herding of people onto cattle truck, the unloading and deciding who would be fit for work and who would be sent to ‘the showers’, and in the case of Eichmann, his defence was that all he did was record information passed down to him, his was essentially a clerical function, recording the numbers of people dealt with.
”This insulation from the raw facts of what his paperwork meant was the result of totalitarianism’s normalisation of the evil in question. It turns off thought and moral imagination. It deals with numbers. In this context, ‘normalisation’ is the key.”
I read history, I find it interesting to reflect back on past times, see how lives were lived, reflect on the power structures and the challenges faced by those in power, those who challenged that power and how that impacted on the ordinary people of the times, and through that consider the world of today, the power structures and the challenges faced by those in power, those who challenge that power and how it impacts on the ordinary people of today. The lies Hannah Arendt refers to were of the Nazi regime, but that was not the first time lies have been used to delegitimise ethics and morality, to obfuscate, muddy the waters so that truth is lost to rendered as meaningless.
Searching for something compelling to read, scanning the titles on the library shelves, I came across a book from Paul Ham, NEW JERUSALEM: The short life and terrible death of Christendom’s most defiant sect.
The period was 1525 to 1535, shortly after Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Thesis, questioning various doctrinal standards of the Roman Catholic Church. Unintended consequences, this all happened when the Gutenberg Bible was first printed in the 1450s making the Bible more accessible to the leaders of the Catholic Church and threw into question many of the doctrines of the church, which led to the Reformation and a further fragmentation of the church as different interpretations and misinterpretations were found and taught.
The bits of the Bible which suggested that “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 19:24) were not fashionable teachings, and still are not today when we see that preaching can be a lucrative game, tithing ensures a continued flow of income, church owned land and property are not taxed.
Some scholars saw that there were a number of issues, that the church was not acting according to God’s word, for Luther, a sticking point was the selling of indulgences, where in confession, a sinner could pay off the price of his sins in cash, especially since the church had an ambitious Cathedral building programme which needed financing, others though saw the rites of Infant Baptism and the teaching that the elements of the Eucharist, the bread and wine became the literal body and blood of Christ as a mis-interpretation of the scriptural teaching. Those people became the anabaptists, insisting that a person must be an adult, or at least mature enough to understand the meaning of baptism, and so went around re-baptising people who became their followers. It became a very bloody affair when the Anabaptists took over the city of Munster in Germany and became the site of a bloody fight between the Anabaptists and the Catholic Church. Thousands died horrific deaths through starvation and brutality. Beheadings and heads placed on pikes and displayed to instil fear in those who would not repent and return to the Catholic faith.
The brutality of the conflict and the punishments meted out to the leaders of the sect were gut wrenchingly horrific. The normalisation of brutality is made easier through dehumanising the opposition, or in religious terms, where ‘we are God’s people, they are not’. Vengeance was not constrained by the self righteous victors. In the following almost 100 years, the Germanic regions of Europe saw religious wars in which half the population was killed over whether infant or adult baptism was biblical, whether in the Eucharist the bread and wine actually became the body and blood of Jesus or not. They were the arguments, but in essence it was a war for political dominance were the catholic Church had effectively ‘owned’ the region and that was challenged.
The book was published in 2018 and in an afterword, the author explains that nothing much has changed.
Religious warfare runs rampant in various places around the world today. The brutality with which daring to not conform to an established orthodoxy or to challenge the rights of particular believers whether religious or political is met with incredible cruelty. The most obvious is that of the Zionist movement in reclaiming the lands as legend has it, promised to Abraham 4,500 years ago. Among the Christian Churches, particularly the evangelical movement, there is the interpretation that Jews will return to the promised land and convert to Christianity, paving the way for the promised return of Jesus. Jews on the other hand are still waiting for their Messiah to show, the armageddon being played out now paves the way for that momentous event… but which will it be, Jesus or the Messiah or are they one and the same, and that curly question has divided Jew and Christian for a very long time.
Within the Islamic world we see that the Quran is interpreted in different ways, some strictly some less so as a measure of control. The conflict between Sunni and Shia which divides the oil rich gulf area, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia which allowed the saudis to almost agree to recognise Israel, the current conflict stalled those negotiations.
The power vacuum in Iraq after Americans left allowed ISIS to gain power and establish a caliphate in the wasteland of war’s aftermath, the Taliban in Afghanistan a strict interpretation of Sharia law, the laws as laid out in the Quran has restricted the rights of women and their freedom and independence.
Inevitably there is quest for power, and empowering of one group over another. Opposing forces are dehumanised, called names, terrorist is a good name, otherwise reference to animals, dogs, women who seek power become witches or bitches.
Questions of who is right, who has the moral upper hand become clouded through the restrictive interpretations of current events. It is too easy to see the war in Gaza, now extending north into Lebanon. and while eyes are averted, continuing in the West Bank as having started through the brutal attack by Hamas on innocent Israelis, but failing to recognise the marginalisation of the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank since 1948, the dehumanising of Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorists diminishes Palestinians and allows for the Gaza strip to be reduced to rubble, and legitimises the invasion of Lebanon where thousands of innocent people have been killed in the seemingly indiscriminate bombing of apartment buildings. And the threat that if Lebanon does not get rid of Hezbollah, it too may be reduced to rubble, just like Gaza.
Truth is hard to find, as the people who are asked to comment are politicians or nominated spokespersons, but the reporters on the ground are silenced, the news offices closed so that the only information which comes out is the official line from the Israeli side. War also becomes a political football, where one side is considered on ‘our side’, the others must then be terrorists, particularly difficult in a nation such as ours which is an immigrant nation, having both citizens and guests from both sides of the conflict living among us. But we must be careful which flag we use in our public protests, lest we be criminalised, branded as supporters of terrorists.
The challenge is to sort out the difference, which is true information, which is misinformation and which are blatant lies?
Both in the news and information presented to us and in the way histories have been framed.
And that task is not easy.
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I agree with every word.
It’s impossible to control the official narrative without misinfo if the initial narrative itself was a set of lies.
That is the role of modern mainstream media, to lie to the people so that hidden agendas can ‘progress’.
In regard to the Gaza genocide and soon-to-be Lebanon extension, if analysis starts on 06th Oct 2023, then much of what Zionists say is true. Go back a century and it’s a different story – the Balfour Declaration and British Mandate for Palestine.
I note that in Israel, it is not easy to trace family history using DNA tests. The Genetic Information Law, passed in 2000, regulates genetic testing so much so, that it often requires a court order or special permission. So the famous Semetic bloodline upon which the Zionists lay claim to Palestine is based on what, truth or fiction? Jews might be a race of people (easily proven with DNA testing), but as for the Zionists who claim to be Jews, what is their actual common heritage, is it merely a mindset?
DNA proof please.
… making the Bible more accessible to the leaders of the Catholic Church …
It made that book more accessible to the general populace and, thus, the followers. Printing and then translation into English and other commonly used languages were where the “problems” (for the church) started.
… whether infant or adult baptism was biblical …
John the Baptist has never been depicted as an infant, for the very good reason that he couldn’t possibly have done the things he supposedly did unless he was an adult. The lack of logical thinking and objective analysis by these twonks …
Ohh, and thanks for the heads-up on that bok; it sopunds interesting . Ham’s a fairly good writer and is usually meticulous in his research.
Xi, on the question of DNA and family histories for Jewish people, an interesting book is The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand.
An excellent objective analysis of the Boofhead Duddo COALition strategy of ”everything done by LABOR is wrong!!”
I note that the Roman church always known for their liberal attitudes, held to the belief that the universe was geocentric until ….. 1948, despite the work of astronomers since the 17th century.
Xi:
Even if genetic testing was to establish some sort of biological foundation for Zionist claims on Palestine – anyone with the slightest awareness of the “Blut und Boden” ideology that fuelled the Holocaust should at once recognise the irreducible internal self-contradictory dynamics of “genetic Zionism”.
Many thanks Bert for an excellent essay.
Regarding who or what controls “the truth”, especially about Gaza, consider this quote:
“The simple and unvarnished truth is you cannot keep 2.2 million people confined to a latter-day Indian reservation for 17 years, control their access to electricity, clean drinking water, and all the necessities of life, while also denying them freedom of movement, dignity, hope and a future. No, you can’t do all that and expect next-to-no resistance….
…This is the context in which Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, launched by Palestinians in Gaza one year ago today, must be understood. No ugly oppression has ever given rise to a pretty resistance. History leaves no doubt of it.”
[ https://consortiumnews.com/2024/10/06/the-meaning-of-october-7/ ]
I found myself forced to go one step further: not only is it “not easy”, it is, for all practical purposes, well nigh impossible.
I grew up in Germany, during the period when the country did gain a little distance to its the Nazi past, which made it possible for the processes of recognition and dealing with it to become more of a mainstream endeavour.
During that time it did occur to me to ask what I would have thought and done if I had been part of that generation. And as much as I like to flatter myself that I would have been and remained a true socialist, I had to admit that there is absolutely no guarantee for that whatsoever. Indeed, many frustrated socialists did take up National-Socialism, sometimes with great enthusiasm.
What is in some ways even more concerning is the fact that after the war, many of those socialists who had remained true to their convictions, did set up a system that was in many ways only marginally less oppressive than National- Socialism.
I read Victor Klemperer’s L.T.I., a diary by a highly accomplished philologist charting how the German language changed during the Nazi rule, and how the changing use of language dictated changes in perception and thoughts, and how this manifests in official “Deutungshoheit” – “interpretational sovereignty”.
It’s available in English, and it is an interesting read, especially for those who might not as yet have realised the extent to which the words and language we use dictates what we can and can’t think and communicate.
What is unsettling – especially in hindsight – is the enthusiasm with which Klemperer contributed to the East Germany political project after the war. Importantly, I do not mean this in any judgemental way – what I find unsettling is how easily I could have committed to a similar path, ending up in Stasi leadership positions, or contributing to the maintenance of what must have been the most heavily enforced territorial border in all of history.
Hence my urgent insistence: yes, we must take care to tell truth from falsehood to the best of our ability.
But even if we are genuinely convinced that “we know the truth”, I insist that a great degree of reticence to enforcing and imposing it on unwilling others is of the essence.
So much so, that if we were to organise our public life, and our public policy determinations under consideration of this last maxim, politics and the Rule of Law would change beyond recognition.
Determining truth is important – but so is deciding what to do with and about “the truth” once we have determined it!
Thank you Arnd for a truly thought-provoking post.
The dilemma of what to do sometimes in “ordinary” situations can be confronting, but what to do in really fraught situations?
An excellent example of “what might have been” was a profoundly interesting book written by the author Milton Mayer. Part of the Introduction follows:
“I came back home a little afraid for my country, afraid of what it might want, and get, and like, under pressure of combined reality and illusion. I felt—and feel—that it was not German man that I had met, but Man. He happened to be in Germany under certain conditions. He might, under certain conditions, be I.” —Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, ix.
The book and its ramifications are discussed at length in a long article from The Brownstone Institute in 2022, which commences thus:
“In 1952, Mayer moved his family to a small German town to live among ten ordinary men, hoping to understand not only how the Nazis came to power but how ordinary Germans—ordinary people—became unwitting participants in one of history’s greatest genocides. The men Mayer lived among came from all walks of life: a tailor, a cabinetmaker, a bill-collector, a salesman, a student, a teacher, a bank clerk, a baker, a soldier, and a police officer.”
[ https://brownstone.org/articles/they-thought-they-were-free/ ]
JulianP, to understand how “ordinary” people (Germans, in your post) “became unwitting participants in one of history’s greatest genocides”, look no further than these last 4 years. First the public is softened up with mandates, sanctions and psy-ops. Informed consent deleted, the right to free movement restricted, the right to breathe fresh air stiffled by mask mandates, doctor-whistleblowers cancelled or sacked, the chief USA drug gatekeeper (FDA) applied to have trial results for one of its clients (Pfizer) hidden from the public for 75 years; people forced from their jobs at the point of a needle, and those who felt they had no other choice because they wanted to keep their family together and home intact – left to roll the dice and hope to receive a placebo and not a full strength whatever-chemical-concoction, etc. And now govt officials & chief bureaucrats are playing possum, along with the legacy media & BAR who are doing their upmost to divert attention.
Once the Misinfo And Disinfo Bill passes it will likely be Dutton or other LNP dud’s turn to take the reins from Labor next election.
I predict by this time next year most Aussies will belatedly be awake to what just went down and how shite an idea is a MAD Bill.
The psychology of it all is quite simple when you look into it. Browbeat, repeat, browbeat, repeat, stay on narrative/hide truth.
As for truth, that may be the highest, but sometimes it too comes with a murderous cost attached.
To name a few – Socrates, Jesus, Mansoor and Osho all proved that point.
JulianP, thanks for that Brownstone link. I’ll read it when I have more time.
I don’t think it’ll tell me anything I haven’t worked out already – some people might consider this an active case of Confirmation Bias – but it is still good to know that at least some others have recognised what I (following Hannah Ahrendt’s lead) have come to consider the utter stupefying “Banality of Evil” – the utter stupefying “There, but for the grace of God go I” banality of the origins of evil.
But try raising the subject of our own willing, if banal and petty, complicity in enabling evil. You’ll get determined “Who? I? No way!” type pushback far more often than you get someone seeing reason to pause and reflect.
Julian Morrow made a contribution to this subject in The Times: It’s The Stupidity, Stupid. All too often, we ourselves contribute to our own gas-lighting. At times very enthusiastically.
Pete, I don’t recall ever having heard of Mansoor or Osho – a deficit I shall remediate at the earliest convenience. Thanks.
As for Truth and Socrates: one of his signature insights was that “I know that I know nothing”. Or in its longer version:
Another one of Socrates’ key insights, arrived at with impeccable logical precision, is that “No one does evil willingly!”
Which, of course, was reiterated a few hundred years later by one J. of Nazareth praying for His torturers: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!” The obvious implication being that if they did, they wouldn’t be doing it.
I have convinced myself that this applies everywhere. Even in the case of Adolf H. I believe the man truly thought he was doing a great service to humanity. Or Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin …
Which is an insight with seriously troubling implications for all the rest of us.
Arnd, with stupidity and ignorance forever on abundant display along with the seemingly fixed condition of lack of insight at personal and wider levels, it’s unlikely anything will change for the better anytime soon. It’s been well-observed that improvement for the masses is an impossibility.
Further to this, it’s not as if there’s a deficit of wisdom or wise observation or great teachings available for access if we wish; au contraire, abundant resources await those who seek. The problem – if that’s the best term to describe this phenomenon of entrenched ignorance – is that the great majority of people are simply uninterested in investing time and effort in becoming educated and aware of higher levels of thought and depth psychology. As a teacher of note put it some years ago, 99.99999% of people have zero interest in exploring their potential and possibilities for growth.
Thus, for most, we bump along in a semi-dazed condition of partial awareness or worse, blind ignorance, preoccupied with matters of sensual note and imminent concern, unaware that the house in which we live is aflame. You reference Christ; I’d suggest that of the 100% who say that they understand and follow his teachings, in reality only a few percent really comprehend the essence of his words. Nature doesn’t need or require man to become awake and enlightened, which is why, unfortunately, so few do.
Canguro, that’s a great comment.
“…improvement for the masses is an impossibility.”
I understand your frustration, and it certainly feels that way, but I’ve long believed, and still do, that if an articulate, intelligent, charismatic leader of the Global Left emerged, the pendulum would quickly swing back to community values.
Simply because that has been the story of our evolutionary history.
Don’t let anyone tell you that warfare is the natural state of humanity.
Sure, it’s always been a feature, but a feature at the margins, for the most part.
I like to use the analogy of watching a wildlife documentary where two bulls fight for control of the herd.
We think Wow! Aggression! Competition! Rivalry! Violence!
But we overlook the years of social nurturing, cooperation and mutual aid that got the two competitors to the point where they could compete for the herd.
We also overlook the rest of the herd going quietly about their business while all this is going on. It’s all very ho-hum in the big scheme of things.
“Nature doesn’t need or require man to become awake and enlightened, which is why, unfortunately, so few do.”
A very perceptive comment.
With a multitude of implications that we cannot go into without ploughing over old ground.
Osho (1930-1990) was a spiritual teacher across all previous teachings & techniques.
His legacy was that at the time of his death he left behind some dozens, and now maybe hundreds, of enlightened beings.
Here’s an interview with WA 6PR radio host Howard Sattler (1980s) in the US –
‘OSHO: I Am A Threat – Certainly’
Mansoor or Mansour al-Hallaj, was a Sufi master. His story parallels that of Socrates. Back in the 9thC they didn’t have a MAD Bill, but they must have had mad leaders who were incensed that someone was speaking his truth in public. He had to be killed off to send a message to others. Nothing much has changed in 1100 years. There are still control freaks who think they have the right to tell others what to think, say and do, so mad are they that they have created a MAD Bill.
Pete, better judgement suggests one should let your comment go through to the keeper, but I’d seriously question whether the legacy of Osho / Rajneesh included dozens if not hundreds of enlightened beings. Myriad observations from within the society of sages; Buddhist – Mahayana, Theravada, Zen, the Christian esoteric orders such as Greek and Russian Orthodox, Islam – esoteric Sufism, individuals such as Krishnamurti, Gurdjieff, Samael Aun Weor, Eckhart Tolle, Meher Baba, to name but a few; all attest to the enormous difficulties involved in attaining enlightenment. I’d be surprised if there was a single person who became enlightened via their relationship with the Indian guru. Ecstatic dancing, liberated sex and mung beans are all very well, as is adoration of the master, but serious work is required on the path to enlightenment, and I don’t think there’s much evidence that that was the thing within the Orange People cult.
Not questioning for a moment whether Rajneesh was enlightened; it was self-evidently so, but his gig, the cult of worship that surrounded him, well documented by the Netflix documentary series Wild Wild Country, I think showed how off the rails the whole show became. Maybe he should have just stayed in his ashram in Mumbai, instead of making the fatal mistake to attempt at enlightening the West and ending up with 93 Rolls Royce’s, armed guards and the paranoid convicted criminal Ma Anand Sheela, and to be eventually deported from the USA and denied entry by nearly two dozen other countries. Lightning rods for controversy like this man aren’t generally the best mentors for those on the path of spiritual awakening.
Canguro, agree with some points but in one of his videos he mentioned 12 or so people were already enlightened. That was just prior to his being deported from the US. I watched the Netflix WWC series but I didn’t get much insight into his work. I don’t remember that series even showing 5 minutes of any one of his talks. My guesstimate is there are 1000s of ‘enlightened’ people around. There must be 100,000s more people who are a mere meeting away with such a man or woman before they too reunite with their original nature. Here’s a few who actually teach today: Adyashanti, Andrew Cohen, Matt Kahn, Rupert Spiro. There are at least 10 Indians and Tibetans also making available insights. They’re around, just most are quiet.
Interesting that while Florida authorities were ordering an evacuation saying that people would not be safe in their homes when hurricane Milton hit, Israeli authorities were ordering residents in Beirut to evacuate saying they wouldn’t be safe in their homes as they were about to bomb them.
What a crazy world we live in !
Pete & Canguro, re Osho and others. I’ve met Osho, a fine and mischievous wit – “Why are you here? Go to the marketplace!” “Everything is a device.” And I’ve met Osho’s brother who loved to dress in traditional Rajasthani attire with particularly vivid and very curly curly-toed shoes, and I spent time at one of the ashrams – was there when Osho died, and attended his pyre. To me it’s not necessarily a matter of ‘teachings’ and ‘learning’, but being in the midst where one can observe the various, and then coming away, and later maybe, becoming even more aware of the dichotomies, and the very thin veneer that we might call the norms or realities we from time to time elect.
Whilst we’re on books and gods, I was fascinated and entreated by Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita on Stalinist Russia / Moscow.
On truth …. when Woland (the devil) addresses the Muscovites,
“You claim you are godly and know God, no-one knows God better than I, we are familiars.”
Clakka, hats off! The things that jump out of these pages!
I saw Bulgakov’s The Master & Margarita at the Belvoir Theatre late last year, a nearly three hour production of joyous mayhem and a highlight of my modest & infrequent getting my arse out of the house social commitments.
As if one needed any further proof that America harbours the stupidest people on the planet, this linked article from this morning’s Guardian… It’s mindblowing… puts the final nail in the coffin of doubt. Meteorologists receiving death threats for their roles in creating hurricanes Helene & Milton.
‘Golly gee whillikers, Beryl, it says here in the news that them weather people gone done made them big stormy thengs down there in Florida… deng, I’ll be darned, I reckon they orta be shot or sumpin, that ain’t no deng good..’
Clearly the 1960s TV show The Beverly Hillbillies was a harbinger of where that country was headed, intellectually & culturally.
Keep in mind that this is the feedstock society that pumps & supports conspiracies, wars, corruption in business & politics, promotes weapon sales to client governments that then use those instruments as tools of genocide, murder, repression and terror, aided & abetted by politicians and media along with agenda-driven semi-lunatic think tanks of various stripes. Idiots on the loose, a dangerous parade and a clear threat to all others.
Clakka, sounds true ‘everything is a device’, everything that happens is an opportunity to learn. Osho’s bro had curly shoes, cool, I wonder if he was a fan of Leunig’s Mr Curly. I had an interest in the whole enlightenment thing until the UN/WHO lockstep plandemic came along. I switched to looking at scientific docs and presentations.
For those interested in things of a spiritual benefit try Rick Archers site BATGAP collection of interviews: https://batgap.com/ About 2/3 of interviews I watched seemed the real deal, especially earlier ones. I haven’t checked in there since 2020.
Canguro, will check out the M&M play, sounds interesting. Re some Americans kicking off about the possibility of human interference in hurricane trajectories etc, there is proof: The USAF published a paper in 1996 – ‘Weather as a Force Multiplier, Owning the Weather in 2025′ https://docslib.org/doc/10850182/weather-as-a-force-multiplier-owning-the-weather-in-2025 The fact that the military has the technology to steer hurricanes, jet streams etc is not a reason to threaten Met staff.
Govt will never acknowledge the connection between misuse of any of their tech and damages and deaths. Think litigation.
Pete, if you’re chasing Mikhail Bulgakov’s work, and are familiar with handling torrent files, you can find the film version here – in Russian with subs – or the book version here, along with other of this writer’s works.
A wonderful piece of literature… inspiring to comprehend the creativity of this author.
Canguro,
Thanks for the link to the M&M film, I read the book quite some years ago. Was mooted as a masterpiece of the 20th C. The life of Bulgakov interesting and risky in Stalin’s time. Despite Stalin releasing him, it was his 3rd wife, Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova that finished the book.
Would love to have seen the play. Looking fwd to watching the film.
Thanks Canguro, just watched a TEDx – Why should you read “The Master and Margarita”.
What struck me about the overview of M&M was that Aust is now in the same predicament as Russia in 1930. The MAD Bill is the red flag. The difference between us now and Russia in 1930 is we have Albo and Russia had Stalin – a vast difference.
So how would the puppet masters get rid of the Albo once the MAD Bill passes into law? Free speech needs to be shut down ASAP therefore any soft heads as PM will need to be sacked. Albo will likely be switched out for Defense Minister Marles who is more fitting of a totalitarian regime imo. Dutton is a shoe in already.
How did Aust get to this point where our politicians are on the verge of throwing away our right to free speech?
The work of G Edward Griffins offers insights to the path:
More Deadly Than War – G. Edward Griffin (1969)
Yuri Bezmenov (former KGB agent) with G Edward Griffin (ironically interviewed in 1984) –