Causalities of the current context

Working in health care, in rural India, one is used to casualties, sudden medical crisis that are brought into emergency where the team gets together to stabilize the patient before deciding what to do next. Some go on into an acute care ward or ICU, some go into a low-end care or high dependency unit, as the situation may be. Some even go home after the initial stabilization. Most of the casualties that come in are crises that has been waiting to happen. There was a festering wound, a lingering illness, an ignored symptom or disease. Ignored for months together by either the patient or those who are responsible for to take care. And by the time they decide to come in, many are beyond help. They have ignored it so long that the illness is beyond cure. Some have been fooled by practitioners who had promised them a cure but was using their illness for making a fast buck, while the illness is progressing. By the time the patient or his or her family realizes the mistake, it would be too late. And the only thing one can do is – allow the patient to get ready for his or her inevitable end.

And when one talks to the patient or family there is a general feeling of helplessness. It is seen as fate.  Statements are - what else could have happened, there was no other way, the one up there is responsible, he is playing a game with us, we can’t do much…. a general feeling of apathy. Though it is evident that a careful consideration early enough could have helped.

As we look around in our socio-political context, we see many such casualties. There are far too many to talk about, but three to mention here – but the casualty of Truth, Trust and Hope.

There was a time when truth was valued. Leaders were expected to tell the truth. Communities were expected to live out truth as they understood it. Stories of casualties of truth from our broken and fallen society has always been there. But the institutions that govern, that create the broader conversations (the media) and one that preserves the law, were expected to align to the truth and speak the truth. Today it is no more expected. Leadership speaks what they feel like and when confronted – they say it was said in the heat or spur of the moment. They give the glib excuse - they did not mean what they said. The institutions that create common conversations – the media, specializes in false news, fake stories and fake videos. Now there is an industry of fake news creation and another one of fake news identification!  And if one goes by the recent happenings in our nation and in other parts of the world – the leadership of institutions that are to be keepers of the law – they themselves are caught in the web of falsehood – whether by intention or otherwise, one would never know, because truth will never come out!

When did this disease of false truth or so-called post truth disease start? Did we not see this coming? Were the symptoms ignored for years together, that today it is beyond cure? Or when the leadership we put up was promising a cure, were we unable to see and hear beyond the rhetoric? Had we become so callous that we were unable to see the lingering illness, the festering wounds in our nation and communities?

Can the situation be stabilized, with falsehood taken out and truth being brought back in? Can truth be resurrected and institutionalized again, or is it too far advanced that, we can only now allow the illness to progress and take us to the inevitable end – the death of a society and nation founded on truth?

That brings up yet another question – the words made famous by Pilate “What is Truth?”. Truth today is defined as what the majority believes. The majority or “majority voice” or “noise” (you do not need majority to make a loud noise) becomes the accepted truth. The natural progression from that is - align to what the loud voices tell you – that is the truth and live as per this. Or else – face the consequences!

This is where Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest” comes into play. If you want to live and flourish in the such a context – only the fittest can. Rest will just exist. How does one live and flourish – the fittest are those who ignore the casualty, align to the loud voices/noises, and suppress the inner conscience which is telling you otherwise.

Where am I in this journey of  casualty of truth?

The need of the hour, is to create conversations around the age-old question – What is Truth? The need of the hour is not to get overwhelmed by the loud voices that declare the “truth as they see it”. The need of the hour is to recapture our understanding what is really true and then start grass root movements of truthful conversations. 

The other casualty is one of trust. When truth is thrown out, the natural progression is that - trust follows. We already lived in a low trust society. It does not take much to move from a low trust to a no trust society. When loud voices that define and declare truth as they see it, find others who do not agree to their definition of truth, the way forward is – label them, reject then, destroy them. How does one reject or destroy? Not always by violence, but mostly by labeling and segregating. From and Nation of liberty equality and fraternity, the loud voices tell us, we are we and they are they. They are they because they do not accept truth as we see it. Caste, language, religion, life practices are used to move from a low trust to no trust society. It is not the public that does this, the leaders who were expected to be custodians of truth and fraternity.

How did we reach here? Power hungry leaders can come to power only by having followers behind them. To get followers, the best way is to speak whatever that is pleasing to the ears of the masses, defined as new truth though it might be falsehood. It does not matter, as long as you can consolidate the masses around you – using the new truth or falsehood. Many collude for such new relationships and alignments, not based on trust but for short term gain – things that they will gain by aligning with the powers that be. This collusion can gather momentum if one identifies those who does not align with you and label them to be different. And give the masses a job to do – reject and destroy those who do not agree!

Is this trust deficit beyond redemption? Can we return to the nation which we wanted to be – a nation that celebrates diversity and differences, accept people as they are – though they might be of another language, caste or religion? The need of the hour is to redeem communities of trust - communities that are diverse but trusting each other because each of us carry the image of God in us. 

The third casualty emerging out of these two is – hope. People who once hoped for a bright anticipated future living – now starts living in one of the two paradigms. One group – who are keepers of the new truth (or falsehood) live in the new utopia – redefining hope - a hope of a new community or nation state – where diversity, differences are not part of such a future. The other group – a group that has given up hope. Living (existing) with a sense of apathy or at times despair, because truth is lost, relationships are shattering – future looks bleak!

The need of the hour is to rekindle hope - hope that is shared by all - not the majority only but the majority and minority, the powerful and the weak, the aligned and the non aligned....

As a person of faith – for me Truth is embodied in a person – a person who lived and died a life of Truth for the sake of others, even those who rejected him. It is only part of a bigger realization of what truth is– this I do not want to share here, since the purpose of this article is different.  At the same time, as a person of faith, I am constrained to live a life of relationship – because my faith teaches me – love each other, even your enemies. As a person of faith, I am expected and need to live a life of hope – because it is hope that gives us the momentum to live and flourish and not just exist!

Each of us in our nation with different religious backgrounds may have our own definitions of truth. But there is one thing that binds us as a nation – the constitution that states in its preamble  - ‘JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.”

The dignity of every individual, whatever way they might define the truth!  

How can you and I be facilitators of these conversations of truth and hopefully builders of communities of Truth? How can we be facilitators of high trust communities, with all our differences and diversities? And hope givers – giving hope of a community that desires and lives out a life of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity, assuring the dignity of each individual? Hopeful for a turnaround, in the near future – because The Truth WILL set us free!

Support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict, and inspire hope where there is despair.” Nelson Mandela