We are told that the truth hurts. So, does that mean we will not accept the truth until it has hurt us?
OK, so a question like that as a start to a Blog certainly raises the question where is this going? But in the context of everything that is happening in British Politics today, the answer may put to rest much of the frustration, concern, anger and many other emotions that we experience when trying to make sense of what Politicians are doing, saying and why it feels like it defies any kind of logic that things are now this way. That is IF we think it through.
What many of us either don’t realise or are reluctant to accept, is that the truth is subjective to us all. It is based upon an interpretation of events, based on the journey through them and the outcomes of our own past experiences. It doesn’t automatically allow for the many eventualities relating to those events that could at another time, with different people and if a different place exist.
Our truth is therefore our perspective. So, when we appreciate that our perspective is everything, it is very easy to see why so many of us find it very hard to see alternative perspectives of the same subject or event as offering a version of it that whilst completely different, may be nonetheless just as credible as our own.
We are the sum of our experiences. So, if our truth and perspective tell us that what we see or experience is reality – no matter how peripheral or shallow at first glance it may be, it simply wont matter what the story is that lies behind it may genuinely be, or indeed how different it may be to our perception and just how deep it might go.
Too many people today literally believe anything and everything that makes the most sense to them. They often do so without contemplating their own feelings, emotions or reasoning with whatever is influencing them and is hidden in the detail and what hides in plain sight underneath.
Self-awareness, like critical thinking comes as a premium. Not because so many of us are incapable of being self-aware or thinking critically. But because conditioning and a lack of robust and impartial learning is leaving upcoming generations of younger people disadvantaged. They are literally missing out on key skills for life whilst being equipped with a heady arrogance and view of the world around them that screams the question ‘what the hell is thinking useful for anyway?’
This rueful situation is increasingly problematic and dangerous for us all. It leaves us dangerously exposed to a culture where anyone who is clever enough or who has found themselves in a position of influence is able to polarise opinion, attitudes and the forward thinking of anyone whose life experience or value set leads them to identify with anything as small as just a trigger word. They absorb the truth of others as their own without hesitation whilst throwing the questions like Who? What? Why? and How? into a black hole or abyss, leaving truth to be considered the first thing that subjectively makes sense.
The common trap that accompanies this way of being is to think and believe that anyone who contradicts this perspective or doesn’t add anything to it in a way that makes explicit sense, cannot in any way be right. That they are an enemy of the narrative and that this source of the contradictory narrative must therefore be destroyed.
It might in some ways be of comfort to suggest here that this story I am telling here refers solely to the woke. Unfortunately, the objective reality or wider truth is that it isn’t.
As a society we are now in the grips of an unspoken dilemma with tragic consequences starting to unfold, where we are elevating non-thinkers and a band of absolute charlatans to positions of authority and influence. A vicious circle of negativity is escalating and the presence of these non-thinkers who are riding the waves of their accidental or conjured popularity are simply making what are already difficult and troubling times, exponentially worse for us all.
The problems that we now face are not new by any means. They have been incubating over years and decades. It is events such as the Covid Pandemic that have supercharged both their growth and the detrimental stewardship of the false prophets who already lead us, whilst motivating many of those who would offer themselves as the ‘better’ alternative when it is time for our current anti-leaders to be replaced.
As I write, I am aware that to the reader, an obvious question would be to ask ‘why is your truth, your experience, your understanding better than mine’? I would simply reply that I am not suggesting that it is. I am merely suggesting that we should all look very closely at the people who already lead us or who would like to do so and ask ourselves the question ‘who are the people they actually represent when they speak and use their voice?’
Today I would like nothing more than to see Members of Parliament and the Three Parties they typically represent have a lucid moment. To see and understand the damage their approach is doing as well as what they have already done. Then immediately provide us with representative politics that is fully conscious of and considerate of the whole picture, bringing the realities of cause and effect into the middle of decision making. Putting the law of consequences at the forefront of all of their decision-making work.
Regrettably, life as we know it today simply doesn’t work that way. There is no incentive or reason for anyone who has been getting away with things like our political class and the establishment have been to change direction when they believe that they can continue and just adjust their approach to make it appear different, whilst continuing indefinitely in just the same way.
It really is the case that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Likewise, we should be under no illusion that the populist voices that speak with apparent vigor on social media and the various channels that appear to sit outside the broken system, do sound and seem to speak differently, but they are driven and guided by motivation and outlook which is just as self-servingly insular. They should be considered to be no better than the currently accepted ‘choice’.
Our societal model is broken. Those either at the top or knocking on the door have no investment in facilitating the changes and ways of thinking that will be necessary to fix the problems this Country has and then do what is necessary to make it work.
Honesty and truth can only come from recognisng, understanding and accepting the very basic fundamentals of life. It is a viewpoint that can only be remembered by casting aside all of the non-essentials that we have foolishly come to worship and by returning to a way of living that prioritises what’s really important.
We must find our way to a place where civic model is used only as a glue to bring together that which cannot be addressed by the building blocks and values borne of community and locality; the place where the British society of the future will now almost certainly come into view.
The questions, the answers, the choices, the solutions and the decisions themselves must come from and be fully representative of the people so that we know those who speak for us and represent us are doing so for us collectively and for the right reasons. Not because there is an unseen agenda which may not be dishonest but is nonetheless ignorant of what the majority of us would otherwise want, simply because their thinking has been clouded by the veil of personal choice.
Beware the false prophets that profit from a time where thinking has little value. But rest assured that the events they have helped to create will soon equip us with a very different and beneficial choice.
Adam Tugwell 