Does Truth Even Matter Anymore

We all know and lament that we are in an era of fake news, deep fakes, and a general breakdown in the trustworthiness of sources that ought to be worthy of our trust: institutions, media, elected officials.  This is a terrible development for our society and our well-being, that truth has become so scarce and so hard to tease out of all of the noise.

Yet we must also accept our own responsibility in the matter.  The fact of the matter is that, all along, we have chosen to believe what we want to believe.  The power of narrative has always been there, and the only reason we cling to it all the more now is not necessarily because we have gotten more tribal or more cynical or more deceptive.  Rather, it is that our world has become noisier and busier.  Which makes us crave simplicity in the form of “truths” that are easy to agree with and feel good to support, regardless of whether they are borne out in the data.

I’m loath to give you a “for example,” because my goal is not to enrage or divide, and I can scarcely think of an issue that won’t engender rage or division.  So to keep things simple, let’s use a sports analogy, and then in the comfort of your own head you can extrapolate this to politics or economics or tech. 

It is often said, “defense wins championships.”  Regardless of the sport, the narrative is that while offense gets the glory during the regular season, come playoff time the hard-nosed defensive-minded team is the one that guts out the hard-fought victories.  And, regardless of the sport, I believe the data bear out that this is not at all true.  What is true is that sometimes defense wins championships, and sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it’s unclear.  But “defense wins championships” is a truism that we cling to, even in the face of contradictory evidence, because it fits a narrative that we want to believe about how championships are won.

Maybe this is a trivial example, but feel free to pick any number of topics that are of more societal importance, and I assure you that there are “truths” that we choose to cling to in spite of the fact that even a little bit of digging will uncover that they are only partially true or in some cases not at all true. 

In my line of work, it’s my job to make a case, and to support that case with evidence.  Both are important, and both are related.  I cannot make a case without evidence.  But, I cannot assume that the evidence stands alone as the case.  

Rather, and especially in a climate in which people fundamentally agree with my case, I have to assume that my presentation of evidence does not by itself get people to change their mind and reconsider what they believe.  No, I have to actually make the case.  With evidence.  But also with other techniques that, along with that evidence, help people to reevaluate deeply held beliefs about “truths” such that they are willing to consider that there is more to the story than their side of it.  Easier said than done, but necessary to do.

Truth still matters, even and especially when it seems it is in short supply.  But evidence by itself does not get most people to detach from a “truth” they hold fast to.  You have to make a compelling case too.