Post-truth Is a Result of Both the Misunderstanding and Rejection of Post-modernism

We find ourselves in a post-truth world because of the poor way in which we have dealt with the revelations of post-modernism.

Post-modernism does indeed say that there is no truth, but that is only part of the story.  Leaving it there is like saying that there is no time because of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. What Einstein said was that time is relative to the speed an object is traveling at, not that time doesn't exist.

The post-modern revelation was that there is no universal and eternal truths because truth is always relative.  That does not mean that truth is completely arbitrary or completely non-existent.

Truth is relative to time and place, which means it is also relative to the past and the perceived or desired future.  Truth is never simple, and it is rarely easy. It is something that needs to be thought out and also believed in, and it must be believable. It needs to resonate with the people (their experience, community, history and vision of the future) and their physical surroundings.

We live in a post-truth world because some people refuse to believe that truth is relative and insist on a solid universal and/or eternal conception of truth and a storehouse of truths that fit that criteria. These people deny the complexity inherent in reality that post-modernism revealed. Others take up only a simplified and naïve version of post-modernism and insist that truth does not exist at all. 

One side insists on using only truths that deny or ignore the importance of context, truths that they know because of their privileged position and abilities. Meanwhile, the other side takes hold of any idea that is beneficial to them and promotes it as a truth.  Sooner or later, the difference between the sides collapses and they both employ each other's tactics. 

As these two sides fight against one another (and take advantage of the average person as they do so) the idea of truth is torn to shreds.  Both sides use it cynically to gain support for their own agenda. As this goes on any truths that we have and need are trivialized and made ineffective.  People, society and knowledge are left in free-fall, or left to wander in a wasteland.  As this goes on society as a whole and the average person loses. 

Appeal to Offence

I would like to propose a new logical fallacy.

Appeal to Offence

This happens when one side shows they are offended by something the opposition said or the way they said it.

This is followed by insisting that they apologize.

The apology must be complete and without qualification.  (Especially if it was unintentional.)  After all, an apology followed by a 'but' is not really an apology at all. 

Since the opponent cannot say anything else after they apologize, the offended party can then leave the debate or argument with the last word being an apology to them.  The apology can easily be construed as an admission of fault and defeat.

In this way an argument or debate can be easily shutdown and virtually won without providing any further evidence or logical backup for their side. 

(The other outcome is that the offender will refuse to apologize, or will offer an apology that is not accepted because it is followed by a 'but' or some soft of explanation or qualification. In this case the offended can accuse them of being uncivil and exit the situation while claiming the moral high ground.)

Like all fallacies, there are times when it may appear to be a fallacy but is not.  Naming this a fallacy does not mean that you cannot get offended in a debate, discussion or argument.  An appeal to a legitimate authority who knows the issue being discussed is not a fallacy of appealing to authority.  It also does not mean that you shouldn't apologize if you offend someone.  It is a fallacy if it is used as a means to settle the issue or end the debate. 

Being offended and wanting an apology (and giving an apology) is not a fallacy, not a logical problem, as long as it doesn't take precedent over the evidence and logic of the debate or argument.

Amusing Ourselves with Fear, Anger and Hate

To amuse doesn't just mean to entertain much less to do so in a pleasant way. Webster's dictionary has two obsolete definitions that we need to keep in mind when thinking about Neil Postman's critique of modern society: that we are amusing ourselves to death.

We can very easily amuse ourselves into ignoring all sorts of things by escaping into the pleasant and enjoyable. This is what most people will think when they hear the phrase 'amusing ourselves to death'. This is indeed one path, but it is the obvious one and not the one we are on.

Postman is quick to point out that the most obvious and popularly suspected path to a dystopia is usually not the one that will be followed. We are too smart and alert for that.

He points out that the Orwellian dystopia of 1984 is indeed possible but not as likely as the less known and feared dystopia of Huxley's Brave New World. Orwell talks of a totalitarian society that rules over its people with fear and pain, where information is restricted and tightly controlled. Huxley's version has people going along with the totalitarian regime because they are trained to do so and are rewarded (or distracted from anything else) with pleasure. Information does not need to be hidden or restricted because people are out of the habit of looking for it and are too busy indulging in pleasure to bother.

Postman thinks what we are actually heading for is something much more akin to Huxley's vision. We will not want to read or think or question because we will be busy entertaining ourselves (and consuming). We will be indulging in escapism and be confident that we can do so indefinitely with no real consequences. What is worse is that when we do come back from our escape, we are not capable of thinking or communicating in deep, meaningful and constructive ways because we have lost the ability to: amusement and escapism cause our thinking and communication skills to atrophy.

What is really dangerous about this is that there is no organized conspiracy that is doing this to us. The forces that are degrading us through amusement are fragmented and unorganized. They are all just out for their own profit and not colluding to control society. While that means that there is no puppet master pulling the strings and controlling us all, it also means there is no one or no force keeping society together and keeping us from slowing destroying the modern world and society that has been built up over the past two centuries or more.

In short, the main difference between Huxley's dystopia and our modern reality is that A Brave New World had puppet masters behind the scenes making sure it all runs smoothly and is sustainable, while our reality is one that tends more and more towards being unsustainable the more we amuse ourselves.

This is not a dystopia where a group of people's idea of a perfect world or society (a utopia) goes wrong and becomes more horrible and repressive than wonderful and liberating. This is a decent into chaos and disorder and has every potential to be more horrible and repressive than a dystopia.

But back to the word amuse: Are we really amusing ourselves into a downward spiral? The hate and fear that has gripped a large portion of the US and most of its media is not pleasant escapism. The news and politics are not pleasant and entertaining; they are often frightening and angry, and they inspire anger and hate.

The two obsolete definitions of amuse shed light on this: 1) to occupy the attention of, absorb

2) distract, bewilder. These do not necessarily have anything to do with pleasure. They do however have a lot to do with escapism and keeping our attention.

The media and internet distract and bewilder us with mountains of information, misinformation, trivia and data that keep us from paying attention to what is really around us (people, events, problems) and keep us from making decisions or taking action in regards to them even when we do see them. We are first distanced from everything and then paralyzed by the sheer amount of stuff coming at us.

After a while of course, we become numb to the flood that we find ourselves constantly immersed in. At that point you might think that we would find a shore, any shore, to crawl on to and dry out. If we did, we would likely be overwhelmed by the reality and problems we had been distracted from. We may choose to dive back into the flood and stay. But the media cannot allow us to even have that reprieve or the ability to make that choice. They also cannot allow us to remain numb and passive because their business model is based on keeping us actively tuned in.

As a result, they find ways to keep us engaged. After we have taken on all of the mindless pleasing entertainment we can handle and feel a need to do something, feel something, we become restless. In that restlessness we become susceptible to fear, anger and hate. 

It is no longer easy or even possible to lead us into an escape from all reality and problems, so the media leads us back into caricatures of selected realities and problems that are constructed in such a way that we cannot sit back and be passive in the face of them. (Part of the reason we fall for this is that our thinking and communication skill have atrophied.) These grotesque representations of reality are so inflammatory, divisive and seemingly urgent that we must have an opinion and a strong one at that. In this way, the media keeps us insulated from the real problems, the real world, and at the same time keeps us engaged, keeps us from feeling detached and numb.

I am not saying that this is done intentionally, far from it. I doubt that anyone laid this out as a plan and is trying to get something out of it, like political or economic control. It is merely what is happening as people and the media try to make money, keep informed and feel relevant. And, that is the biggest problem: no one is in control. Through this amusement that is more and more filled with fear, anger and hate, we are throwing ourselves down the spiral towards chaos. We are not in or heading into a dystopia where some evil elite or force is in control; we are heading into chaos, and as we go we are destroying our personal abilities and the societal structures necessary to combat that chaos.  It isn’t a path filled with pleasure, but it is a road of amusement that can lead to the death of modern society. 

Our Failure Is Who We Have Become

"When the supply of information is no longer controllable, a general breakdown in psychic tranquility and social purpose occurs. Without defenses, people have no way of finding meaning in their experience, lose their capacity to remember, and have difficulty imagining reasonable futures."

-- Neil Postman from Technopoly

#AmusingOurselvesToDeath

Americans, and especially American parents, we failed not because Trump won, or because Clinton lost. We failed because we bought the hype that this election was historically significant in a unique way. That became a self fulfilling prophecy. It has become uniquely significant because we have become hysterical and irrational, and as a result we have further divided our society.

We failed because many of us are not capable of finding meaning in our everyday lives and in our immediate surroundings. We have lost touch with ourselves and what, and who, is actually around us. Instead, we are consumed with what is behind the little glass screens we carry around.

When the information stops coming, we feel like the lights have gone out. We feel like the sun has disappeared. Instead of realizing that we need to sleep or rest, and that it is a great opportunity to do so, we panic.

We are so used to being awash in information that we don't know what to do, or who we are, without it. As a result, we push to have more and more, and we push to have it be ever more exciting and important. We want the hype because it keeps us from getting bored, from running out of 'information' to consume. We are addicted. That addiction strikes at the core of each one of us because without that information we no longer know who we are or what our purpose is.

In reality, we are not getting more information that we did 10 years ago. We are getting more trivial data, meaningless facts and misinformation. We are getting more uninformed, poorly formed and exaggerated opinions and analysis.

As a result, we are spending less time on the actual information and well informed and carefully though out opinions and analysis that happen to find us. This makes us less informed, less able to make decisions and always close to collapsing from 'information' overload and decision fatigue.

We also take less time to understand the actual information we get. We take things at face value as they are given to us and let our habits of comprehension (our biases) shape them without being the least bit conscious of it. We don't dig deeper and check the facts or the context. We don't understand; we simply react like we are getting hit on the knee by a rubber hammer.

In reality, we can't check, dig or understand because there is too much coming at us, and we are too obsessed with getting beyond what is here now and getting to what is coming next. We are so afraid of missing something that we actually make ourselves miss what we already have in front of us.

With all of that going on, it is hard to remember anything because nothing sinks in. If you don't take the time to understand something on a deeper level or wider plane, you are less likely to remember it. We only remember the sensational and that is only remembered largely out of context and without detail.

With all of this going on we don't have the memory, attention span or accurate information (especially not about our self and our actual immediate surroundings) to imagine a realistic future. We grasp at far flung utopian or distopian visions of the future that are almost certain to disappoint because they were never realistic in the first place.

We wonder why politicians, salesmen, etc. make us promises they don't keep... but the reality is they can't keep them because they are not possible, at least not in the terms and time frame they give them. They may know that they are impossible, or they may not. The real problem is that we don't seem to notice at the time that the promises are not realistic. We crave the new, the special the spectacular so much that we want to believe. It is a symptom of our addiction that helps to plunge us deeper into the addiction.

We have failed because of who we have become, what we do, what we expect and what we have come to rely on. Trump can't fix that, and he can only make it worse if we let him: if we continue to use him as an excuse to indulge in our bad habits that make us more delusional and more divided. Clinton couldn't have fixed it either, and thinking so is simply another one of our strong and comforting delusions.

We have failed because we not only believed the hype, but because we have become dependent on the hype. We may not be amusing ourselves to death, yet... But we are amusing ourselves into greater delusion and deeper division.