Living the Truth
I am the passionate type: you are the phlegmatic one.
I deceive others with difficulty: you are deceiving with ease.
I am opaque or transparent: you are affable and suave.
I have a need to dramatize (which falsifies my judgment somewhat):
You are not moved by the truth, and are often cynical in its use
(Which is why, in a world of cynics, you are rarely taken in by lies).
I look for the truth in myths: you want the truth to be plain.
My belief that truth is absolute nourishes my moral sensibility:
Your conviction that truth is relative is judged by the end it serves.
You are the Kuhnian scientist, you believe that theories are justified
For reasons of utility to an over-arching paradigm you cannot transcend:
I am the Popperian, I distrust your gestalt of contextual truth,
Exploited to accommodate concern for coherence, respect for conformity;
I hold the refutation of theories a mark of scientific progress -
And theories, irrefutable in principle, are not even scientific at all!
Yet my truth cannot be expressly formulated, while your must be.
What I see as the transcendence of inviolable truth you call unimportant.
I say that a white lie still harms the liar: you deny it.
We both judge lying in terms of the ends pursued by the liar -
To harm or protect, to exonerate oneself or encourage another,
To avoid unpleasantness, to hide inferiority, to defend individuality -
But more harshly do I judge the lie when told with the aim of mystifying
And depriving many of the ability and confidence to question teaching,
While you, not a seeker of truth, are in danger of doubting too much,
Removing from the ground of existence the very capacity to amaze.
My truth is crushed not by questioning - which leaves the diamonds still
Agreeing in the powdered ore, glittering in their own light -
But by lack of willing miners, to open approaches to flawlessness:
Your truth is confirmed far from the excavation of the meaning of life,