Darryl Naranjit

The Post-Truth Society Darryl Naranjit

What is the post-truth society and how did we get here? Post-truth was in fact the 2016 Oxford dictionary "word of the year" and it means, according to the dictionary, "Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." It is used constantly with the term "post-truth politics" of which it is said... 'in this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire'. There are a number of explanations as to why we are living in a post-truth society. Some commentators have said that the internet and social media programs have made it possible that many different views of things are published and made known to the public. Others have blamed it on post-modernism and the breakdown of traditional meanings of truth. Conservatives have blamed political correctness. The gist of this collection of essays is that there is an inexorable logic that leads from early modern philosophy to the post-truth society, a clear line connecting Descartes and other modern philosophers to Nietzsche and the post-truth society. In other words, it was the epistemological crisis of the late medieval times and the Enlightenment's philosophy that led to the demise of the idea of truth. The post-truth era is a complete repudiation of the classical philosophy. Whereas Plato saw philosophy as leading man out of a cave of darkness, of transcending ignorance of the truth, in the post-truth world, man is led back to a cave of unyielding darkness where no one can see the truth because there is no truth. It is a new age of blindness, a cave that imprisons eternally. It is a cave where the strong can oppress and enslave and destroy with impunity since no one can claim to witness their deeds, since all are blind. The post-truth society is one in which the only truth is the will to power.