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for Truth by Vardis Fisher The
Idaho Statesman, October 10,1945
The gentle soul who fills this space daily doesn't like to be
everlastingly finding fault with the human scheme of things.
It would be much nicer to sing hallelujah and think our dreams are
getting better all the time. The
world loves optimists even when their optimism rests on nothing more substantial
than emotional meringue, and always casts a dubious eye in the direction of
those who say that human institutions fall slightly short of perfection.
But errors like weeds have a way of thriving if they are not uprooted.
Indeed, it can be said that errors are the weeds, with no pun intended,
and that truth is often a rather delicate plant that needs a lot of cultivating.
And a lot of weeding.
On the basis of the knowledge available today to anyone with the time to
dig it out of libraries, the millions of words that appear every week in the
mediums of communication are as full of errors as the typical victory garden was
of weeds. This columnist regards it
as his business to go after those weeds. If
now and then he yanks up what seems to you to be a carrot or a gladiolus, an
onion or an aster, you may be right, because the best weeders in the world do
hoe up a lot of corn (and again no pun is intended).
The most a person can hope for over a long stretch is to come out with a
field that looks well cultivated, and expect that the truth now and then will
get clipped along with the errors. But
it is well not to mistake prejudice for truth.
It is a fact that a lot of people say a thing is false merely because
they have always accepted the contrary as true without ever looking into the
matter.
In all candor it is this columnist's belief that hunting for the truth
can be the most exciting game in life. But
it is a tough game. Truth is
completely indifferent to race, color, and creed.
It doesn't care a whoop about childhood prejudices.
It doesn't care how much feelings are hurt, or what sensitive feet are
walked on. And anybody who plays
the game is going to learn that his discoveries will offend him a hundred times
for every time they flatter him.
In the realm of knowledge there are facts, there are things that are
probably facts, there are things that are possibly facts, and there are the
illusions and superstitions and legends. As
an instance of a fact we can take the city of Chicago or the Mississippi river
and a great many others, most of them belonging in the field of the exact
sciences. As a thing that is
probably a fact we can take the current assumption that human beings will
eventually harness the energy in the atomic bomb.
As a thing that is possibly a fact we can take the report that Stalin has
a sick liver.
As an instance of superstition we can take the belief that it is better
to plant certain things in certain phases of the moon; or that babies can be
birthmarked through the mental processes of their mothers; or that various
itches and twitches portend certain events.
As an illusion we can take anyone looking in a mirror and thinking that
he is handsome. As a legend we can
take the assumption that Dec. 25th is the birthday of Jesus. Yes, to sort the facts from the illusions, superstitions, and legends is an exciting game. It is a game that humbles and chastens, that makes optimism look fine when there is sound reason for it, and pretty silly when there isn't. It's a tough game for the wishful thinker who is going on believing what he believes "no matter what science says." But for those --and there are a lot of them in the world today, including all genuine scientists -- who like a hard fast game with no holds barred, there's nothing better.
If a thing is true it is worthy of everyone's respect.
If it is false, it ought to be weeded out.
This columnist regards himself as a minor weeder, and everything as his
province that is printable. Now and
then he may jerk up the vegetables, but it is always well to take a second look
at them to see if they are carrots and cabbages, or burdock and plaintain.
There's an awful pile of weeds in this world with a superficial
resemblance to the truth. Page last updated: 14 June 2000 |
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