CAN THE TRUTH SET YOU FREE?

To follow up my recently published book, “They don’t lie to children do they?” I’d like to follow this up with another book, “Can the truth set you free?”. Where currently there is a major debate in Australia about the public’s right to know and the American focus on fake news, add to this the way that Assange has finished up and we are facing a major confrontation with truth. The question becomes whether revealing the truth makes the situation better, or whether one should just follow the old saying, "it is better to let sleeping dogs lie". As examples, do you go along with the unlikely story that Epstein hung himself from the top bunk in his suicide watch cell were conveniently cameras were turned off and guards were somewhere else because this will otherwise only open a can of worms for a whole lot of important people including possibly the British Crown, or should the public be given a true story in the interests of posterity?

On a personal basis, the question hinges on what is really the true story on personal relationships since it is obvious looking at Family Court situations, that truth and reality might be only distant relatives. Here again, we often see the truth massaged since do children need to officially know that the family split was because mom was having an affair or dad had beaten mum who said she had to go to the hospital after falling down some stairs? In this instance as an example, does the truth help the children’s understanding or are so-called “white lies” always better?

Then we get to this question of whistleblowers, which is again now under heated discussion in Australia after a Federal police raid on a journalist’s home including a search of her nicker drawers, which all major newspapers have read as intimidation. Where in fact does one draw the line between the public’s right to know and the security of the nation? Former ex-army and ex-Senator Jim Molan appeared on television stating that anyone such as Assange who revealed stuff the government wanted to hide, aka its murder of civilians, should be imprisoned on the grounds that this might help the enemy. While obviously no one wants to help one’s enemy and killing its civilians might piss them off, it nevertheless raises the serious question about the extent to which governments have the right to hide truth when it serves their own interest and their right to legislate this ability.

This overall argument of truth raises itself to uncomfortable heights where starting from America, people seem to have lost the distinction between freedom of speech and the right to propagate hate speech. Where the world seems to have stumbled with this is that the overall truth in anything appears to get clouded, giving rise to people looking for a new cause be it through “The extinction rebellion” or as I have outlined in a recent book, “Climate change- the new religion”.

All of this quest for truth also impinges on how we handle our entrenched religion and the difficulty people have in, on the one hand, being forced to believe in the Jewish/Christian/Muslim monotheist propagation of religion which can be with modern technology and science largely proven as fiction even if a good story and how does one justify oneself in following a dogma which is by now so outdated. This religious issue is central to this question of truth since we see on the one hand how Christianity for centuries has allowed the development of a civil society across the known world which would not have happened had people known that its story was allegorical rather than a question of fact.

All of this brings me to a request from readers to forward to me examples to fit within the mandate of “Can the truth set you free “ which I might adapt and include. Obviously names will be withheld to protect everyone but I believe the question of truth is slipping away and its discussion needs to be highlighted if by no other way than through online participation. Send examples to dr_peter_nelson@yahoo.com