Truth vs Power
Truth matters. True truth matters more. Building on yesterday’s post, should truth not really matter anymore, what is the source of our future freedom? Do we now crave comfort instead of truth? Is it just our own pleasure that we crave, regardless of the truth? No, and the answer is actually much worse than that.
If the truth is no longer the arbiter of what are the best ideas, when the best ideas themselves have no definition, then the only way remaining to vet out the best way to live is by who wields the greater power.
The Bible supports human freedom. But it does not support human autonomy. In our culture of confusion, people cry for freedom, but what they really want is autonomy, and in that pursuit will always find themselves enslaved to their own finite view of existence and may not be able to determine why that’s happening.
Without truth that outlines our values, standards, and boundaries, all that’s left to define our existence is power, who holds it, and what they do with it. Nothing divides us as a nation and culture more quickly or easily than the fact that those who are without values and standards and boundaries and hold power in government, lord it over the rest of us at the expense of truth and our deeply held convictions. But don’t take my word for it.
In a Psychology Today article (not exactly a “conservative” publication), therapist Andrea Mathews examines this conflict between truth and power.
“I’m speaking of the internal conflict each of us has between power and truth. Power is that thing we are always trying to gain over ourselves and others. Power is that thing we think we must have in order to duke it out with life itself. Power is seductive and can be used both consciously and unconsciously to accomplish a given conscious or unconscious goal.
“Truth on the other hand sits us down for a conversation with reality. And while truth can definitely be relegated to the unconscious and can even operate from there without our knowledge, once conscious it stuns on silent mode. The contemplation of truth is singularly the most dumbfounding overwhelm there is. It stops us dead in our tracks along the way to whatever our latest power trip happens to be.
“But power is what most of us are working on, not truth. In fact the more philosophical among us might say that truth cannot ever really be found. But I say that that philosophy is an exercise in denial that is nothing short of another seductive power trip. . . .
“According to that principle, we must be on guard against the powers of others over us, we must stay alert to the strategy we’ve devised, we must do what we have to do to get what we have to get. And if we are honest, i.e., if we can tell ourselves the truth, we know that each one of us has lived based in this power principle most of our lives in some form or another.
“The same is very often true of relationships. We are so busy putting forth the best face and not paying attention to the truth of the dynamics of the interchange that we cannot see what we got ourselves into until much later when we’ve already been pretty seriously hurt. We are trying to get something we think we must have in order to be okay, instead of operating from truth.”
I apologize for the length of this philosophical argument. But I would think she would agree with me that in the privacy of the ballot booth, or when filling out your ballot at home, that we should look for what we’re getting ourselves into and not wait to find out what happened until we are “pretty seriously hurt” after the election. Nothing brings this to mind more quickly than the images of the cries and tears I saw on the faces of young people at the Javits Center Hillary Clinton “victory celebration” in 2016.
And yet so many in our nation and culture depend upon others to tell them what they should believe. We are not an informed electorate. They depend upon others to just simply tell them how to vote. The echoes of the 2000 election aftermath still ring in my memory when a victim of the “hanging chad” ballot fiasco in Florida proclaimed on national television that all “voters wanted to do was vote for their democratic party.”
I am merely advocating that people like that examine the candidates and the issues for themselves, and not refer to others. If you’re interested, you can read my recommendations. Or you can entirely ignore them. Your template for determining how you should vote is not me, television news, slick sounding sound bites, advertisements, or any electioneering.
Your filter should be the truth. And if it’s “power” someone is pushing upon you, I would vote against that. How you determine what’s truth or power is the key. It makes you an informed voter. This is what the Founding Fathers wanted.
I am writing this to you because I’m convinced, like Thomas Jefferson, that the “truth needs no defense. It can stand on its own.” Eventually truth will carry the day in our culture. It may with this coming election. In my efforts to inform you—at least as I see it—I hope you will choose to explore what is “Truth” as you mark your vote on this year’s ballot.
Another initiative on the Colorado ballot I’m suggesting for your consideration:
Proposition 131 is as confusing as it sounds. It will be even worse if it passes because it seems to me to be a power grab. It makes Colorado look a lot like California in rank-ordering general election candidates for office, it will invalidate many ballots marked improperly—likely from seniors who have always voted, and simply voted for the candidate of their choice, and will favor the majority party in each blue state that passes it. In conservative states where it has been tried, these ranked-choice voting schemes have been banned. Some suggest, in on-line commentary, that only conservatives running for office are hurt by this scheme. Examine the proposition for yourself.
The 2024 Colorado State Ballot Information Booklet puts it this way: “The new election system proposed . . . is more complex and expensive. Voters will have to vote in two different systems for each election and may receive multiple ballots. Taxpayers will pay for extensive voter education and outreach efforts. Even so, some voters will still be confused and still incorrectly fill out their ballots, which could change election winners. The complexity of counting ranked results could lead to questions about whether the results are fair.”
We’ve been praying for the integrity of our elections. The truth is, there’s not a reason we should do this to ourselves. I will be voting “No” on Colorado Proposition 131.