The Search for Truth

THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH
by Drew Edmondson

Is it the TRUTH?

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

I continue to be impressed that the first of the Rotary imperatives is the requirement for Truth.  It is the only one of the four that is objective rather than subjective.  Fairness can be argued; goodwill and friendships are worthy but can be ephemeral; and beneficial is in the eye of the observer.  But truth is truth, it is capable of proof, it can be researched and verified, or debunked.

Most of my news these days arrives on Facebook, usually by a friend re-posting something read or seen somewhere.  If the news is impactful and deals with a subject or person I am interested in (in the political world that is largely defined as a person I am ‘fer” or “agin”), I do not take the post at face value.  I then go from Facebook to Google.  I ask Dr. Google, “is this true or false?”   Very often, I am then referred to Snopes.

Did Aristotle say “excellence is a habit”?  Snopes says “no” – that quote first appeared in a 1926 book by U.S. historian and philosopher Will Durant titled The Story of Philosophy.  Durant’s book talked about Aristotle but the language about excellence being a habit was Durant’s.

If the error is egregious I have taken the time to reply with the facts and in that process have admonished my “friend” that it only takes a couple of minutes, if that long, to find out the truth.  But once the falsehood is posted it will be repeated and become virtually impossible to erase.  Primarily I fear repeating something that is not true – I must know.

In my legal practice and particularly as a District Attorney, I formed the opinion that juries are harsher on a defendant who is caught lying under oath than they would have been for the crime committed.  Conversely, the State is responsible for any errors committed by law enforcement.  A case that should have been won can be lost by a misstatement of fact, however tenuous its relevance.

Henri-Frederic Amiel (1821-1881), a Swiss philosopher and poet said the following in his Journal Intime (Private Journal):

“Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and of life.

Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.”

More recently, John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address January, 1960, said, “And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:  First, were we truly men of courage…Second, were we truly men of judgment … Third, were we truly men of integrity … Finally, were we truly men of dedication?”

And, finally, primarily because I am fond of the quote, from Thomas de Quincey in A Second Paper on Murder (1839), “If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing, and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from there to incivility and procrastination.”

I am proud to be a member of Rotary, which places Truth in the high esteem it deserves.