We live in a most extraordinary time, a time that has been described by some as the “post-truth era” or an age without a shared reality.
It would seem to the detached observer that truth has become an entirely subjective reality. You have your truth, I have my truth and having an objective truth is no longer seen as important.
I have, for quite a long time now, become increasingly concerned about this growing trend. It has, become common practice for a large percentage of those who seek to shape public opinion, to actively practice the craft of distorting facts. This has been referred to for some time now as ‘spinning the truth’. The distortion of facts is undertaken to further a variety of political, social, educational, religious, and even so-called ‘scientific’ agendas. The result is that society has collapsed into an appalling and lamentable state of confusion and individuals are increasingly displaying a dangerous erosion of civility towards others.
In this new blog series, I will attempt to examine some of the ‘truths’ and changing values we have accepted as a broader society in the hope of stimulating thoughtful discussion, and a reconsideration of where we are heading as a civilization.
We will discuss how opinion makers have consciously decided that we must all become released from the moorings which have tethered society for hundreds and thousands of years. The result has been that society has drifted precariously into dangerous waters.
We will discuss ethics, moral values and the “greater good” while examining how we got to the place in which we now find ourselves. As a society, and by this, I mean the broader human society, we have grown increasingly unhappy. Despite the astonishing signs of growing affluence, unparalleled in history, and the massive consumption of goods and services, we see that society as a whole has become sick. Symptoms of this sickness are; a sense of alienation, a lack of purpose, the pervasiveness of addictions, the growing daily intake of mood-altering substances now so prevalent in society, of depression, and a frightening increase in self-harming and suicide, particularly amongst the young. Surely any sane person would see this with alarm and question what we have become as a human race. We must also question what has become of our “values”? What do we see as the goal of precious human life?
