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On the Implications of Truth and Untruth by Hugh J. Curran (pub in "Informed Comment"; "Countercurrents" 9/27/26
In classical Greek, opinion is referred to as “doxa” with a clear distinction between doxa and truth (Alethia). We have a President in the U.S. who gives daily information by way of a news program called “Truth Social”. “Truth”, to him, seems to be transactional, expressed in his assertions that Canada become the 51st state, with additional threats against Greenland, But his “truth” is, in reality, opinion (Doxa), in which his assertions are all too often misleading.
Being misled is the essence of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which tells a story of people shackled in a cave facing a wall, watching images projected in front of them. Their reality is based on these flickering images, and their comprehension based on opinions(doxa) shared with each other. When one of the shackled decides to free himself he emerges into the light of the sun and realizes that he had been seeing only images, not reality itself. In this allegory, the Sun is a metaphor for Truth and Knowledge.
Mark Twain’s humorous phrase: “Lies, damned lies, and statistics” illustrates how we are easily deceived, even by numbers, which can give a false appearance of objective information. Twain also notes that “Truth is the most valuable thing we have.” The Irish philosopher Edmund Burke used the phrase: “economy of truth”, meaning “prudent management”, while others shifted the phrase to: “being economical with the truth”, implying deliberate untruthfulness.
A Hebrew proverb states “the Truth is a heavy burden that few are willing to carry”. Mahatma Gandhi defined Truth (Satya) as awakening to a deeper reality. To Gandhi “God is Truth and Truth is God”, meaning Truth is the foundational reality behind existence while relative truth is dependent upon conventional views and opinions.
Relative truths are expressed in the story of the “River Lethe” in Greek mythology which portrays souls drinking its waters to forget memories of their mortal life. Yet when the letter “A” “is added “Lethe” becomes “Alethe”, an active process of awakening to truth.
Christian theology defines Truth as a dependable reality and Christ as the ultimate embodiment of Truth, contrasted with self-deception, and spiritual blindness.
Other religions are equally devoted to awakening to Truth. In Buddhism it centers on the practical realities of human existence and liberation, by way of the Four Noble Truths and the Path out of suffering, as well as the doctrine of the Two Truths (absolute Truth (paramartha satya) and relative truth (samvriti satya)
In Islam Muhammad was known as Al-Sadiq (The Truthful) and Al-Amin (The Trustworthy). The Quran urges believers to align themselves with the truthful and stand firmly for justice, even if it goes against personal interests. Hadiths (traditions of the Prophet) teach that truthfulness guides a person toward righteousness, whereas lying leads to moral decay and hypocrisy.
How do these definitions of Truth relate to wars in Iran, Israel and the Ukraine? The oft-repeated phrase that “the first casualty of war is truth” is reflected in the conflicts that are currently afflicting us. Like many conflicts they are emotionally driven with rationalized justifications, and a compulsive need to demonize and dehumanize adversaries.
There is a medieval Welsh legend illustrating truth-telling. It involves Lludd and Llefelys, brothers ruling Wales and France. Three plagues by malicious forces menaced their kingdoms, which were guided by demons capable of overhearing conversations taking place anywhere. The brothers agreed to meet in the middle of the channel to discuss how to handle the plagues, so they constructed a long brass horn so as to communicate without being overheard. But the demons infiltrated the horn and distorted their words so that only hateful, hostile insults could be heard. Llefelys then poured a medicinal wine into the brass horn to cleanse it so that the virtue of the wine flushed out the demons. At that point the brothers were able to communicate without deceptive speech and made plans to save their kingdoms from the plagues.
Miscommunication often results in bitter conflicts, especially those taking place in the Middle East as misunderstandings continue to be fomented. The U.S. has deliberately aligned itself with the government of Israel’s policies, which is intent on expanding a Jewish homeland to be carved out of traditional Palestinian territory. Although both sides accuse each other of bad faith and malign intent, a few Israeli scholars have taken the side of Palestinians, Ilan Pappe, a well-known example who has written a widely read book: “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
As Pappe notes, political bias obscures Truth-telling, making it difficult to discern deeper realities from falsehood. The demons of misunderstanding proliferate, especially since ownership of the land is the most central concern with both sides resorting to historical narratives to prove their claims. Palestinians state that for many centuries they have had continuous habitation and ancestral presence in the region. The Israeli side looks to biblical narratives to support their claims, although it must be said that, although scholars acknowledge the spiritual and inspirational value of biblical scripture, they do not consider biblical history to be a true measure of accurate history.
There is a similar misunderstanding in the Ukrainian-Russian debacle. Ukrainians insist they have been in possession of the land for over a millennium and have a distinctly different history than Russia. Professor Timothy Snyder, an historian, has taught courses concerning the “Makings of Modern Ukraine” and supports the Ukrainian interpretation of history. In this account, Swedish Vikings (known as Varangians or Rus) arrived in Kiev by river routes in 800 CE for the purpose of trading. Oleg of Novgorod, also a Swedish Varangian, in 882 CE captured Kiev and established Kievan Rus. Ukrainians consider this to be the origin of Ukraine, but in the Ukrainian view it maintained its independence of Russia and sustained itself as separate from Russia by its more than two hundred year connection to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the same time a Ukrainian culture and language evolved while the Orthodox churches of Moscow and Kiev developed separately.
According to the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, Ukrainians were a former province of Russia and their lineage is traced to Kiev, the “mother of all Russian cities”. He uses the Kievan Rus’ origin story to insist that Ukrainian sovereignty is fictitious, and that modern Ukraine was carved out by Soviet leaders, although Ukrainian historians, such as Dr Björn Alexander Düben, insist that Ukraine has been through most of its history, independent of Russia.
Truthfulness about the origins of a nation are often obscured by a need to create a narrative to justify possession. When Doxa (relative truth/opinion) is insisted upon, it looks for a coherent theory to correspond to whatever fits into one particular group’s narrative. Yet Truth, on a deeper level, is a search for fairness, clarity and freedom from obscurities.
In Israel, scholars and archaeologists consider the biblical narrative to be an allegorical and spiritual text and not an historical document. Yet the leaders of Israel interpret the biblical narrative to justify expropriating land from Palestinians who have lived there for at least1500 years. Western powers have been supplying weapons used to devastate Gaza, resulting in the slaughter of at least 20,000 children and 55,000 adults by bombing Gaza’s residences, schools and hospitals into rubble. The complicity has been unconscionable, even to the point of allowing the extremist Israeli leadership to label indigenous Palestinians as terrorists, especially when they resort to protecting themselves against massacres.
Eventually, the horrific nature of the mass killings being perpetrated in Gaza will need to be confronted by Western nations. Israeli historians, including Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappe, the Canadian scholar, Yakov Rabkin, as well as holocaust and Genocide scholars such as Omer Bartov are making their research available to a wider audience. In this way the enormity of what has taken place will have to be faced by those who were complicit, including the governments of the U.S, UK, and the EU which have helped provide the weapons of destruction. Their studied indifference to the moral wrongs perpetrated upon the indigenous people of Gaza and Palestine will eventually necessitate a powerful reckoning.
Omer Bartov has noted that the moral burden that conscientious Germans have carried for 80 years as a result of the Holocaust, will also have to be shouldered by western powers, due to their complicity in the slaughter of innocents in Gaza, many still buried under the rubble.
Hugh Curran has been teaching courses on Peace & Reconciliation at the University Maine for 25 years.
