Today I Explore The Truth. A Tall Order At The Best of Times.

Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool is
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders
Watch the parkin' meters
Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

Over the course of my op/ed writing here on beBee, over in the Lumpy Kingdom and on my blog site, one of the most frequent topics I have written about is bullshit.
There is a simple reason for this and that is because there is so much of it around. You might say the world level of it is at an all time high.
But this morning I woke up with the idea that I would turn that around and write about truth.
Some might argue that writing about the truth is just writing about bullshit from a glass half full perspective. And maybe that’s true. But I’m not necessarily the world’s most ‘glass half full’ guy, so this will be a bit of a challenge for me.

The Truth Is Out There & It Will Set You Free

This is a common misconception about the truth. The truth is out there, but mostly it will get you into trouble.
The world is in a constant struggle between the telling of truth and the creation of convenient lies. And all for either the preservation of the status quo or the building of wealth for those in power.
These are universals. And basically they have been the governing principles of most societies since way, way back in the day.

Here’s A Typical Example

Yesterday, I noticed an article on Facebook entitled: 'Over 30,000 scientists say 'Catastrophic Man-Made Global Warming' Is A complete Hoax And Science Lie.'
This article purports to be getting at the truth that the whole notion of climate change as a destructive force was something that was popularized by Al Gore when he was running for president.
It goes on to state that, at least as 30,000 climate scientists (many with PhDs, which of course makes the whole premise questionable), see it,  the truth is that the climate conditions we are currently experiencing are the result of solar activity and not, in fact due to anything we as a bunch of polluting little beetles, with our fuel guzzling vehicles and power plants, have created.

Questions Invariably Ensue

So where’s the truth? It’s certainly a lot easier to resolve this issue scientifically. I mean science always tells the truth, right?
But on the other side of the coin it’s also pretty easy to believe that the massive carbon industrial economy that sprang up (wind, solar, geo-thermal etc) has been helped enormously by the last two decades of talk about global warming, greenhouse gas emissions and man-made climate change.
So where’s the truth? Well a lot of people would argue that it’s somewhere in between. But my simple minded answer is the same as it ever was…follow the money.
Who benefits? The carbon economy, the alternative energy industry and all the companies that supply it. The consumers and businesses who can afford to source their power that way.
Who gets penalized? The fossil fuel industry. The natural gas Industry. The coal industry, (which is actually more destructive than the other two combined).
The perception: The world is (and has been for quite some time now), on the verge of an eco calamity the size of which we have never seen. Even if that’s not the truth, it’s certainly fear mongering at its finest and you have to admire that.
What do you believe? Well if nothing else it has turned a bunch of fossil fuel powered industries into better corporate citizens, albeit through legislative arm twisting.
Because the simple fact is that many companies that use massive amounts of carbon based fuels are much more responsible now than they were at the beginning of all this ‘eco-disaster’. So that’s a good thing.

But if it is true that we are only contributing to climate change in a very small way, and it actually is our current position in our solar system that is really causing most of this, by stresses that are put on the earth’s very structure by external forces, (i.e. the planet we rely on for our existence), is there really anything we can do about that?
Or do we simply, as a species, learn to adapt to ensure our survival?
Don’t Ask Me. Draw Your Own Conclusions.
I don’t know the true answers to any of this stuff. I believe what I believe and I believe that this is a tiny bit man-made and the rest is really attributable to the solar system we live in.
But that’s just me. I can’t definitively prove any of this. But then again, nobody can definitively prove the converse. At least not yet.
So where does that leave us? I would say it leaves us either in a state of confusion or clarity. Because the truth is basically whatever you believe it to be, especially when it comes to questions nobody can answer definitively.
So there’s my take on the truth. I’ve tried to be as positive as I can. But the fact is that the truth is not out there. Only slices of it. And versions of it. And iterations of it. And bits and pieces of it.
This is quite disconcerting when it come to issues that have to do with our survival as a species. And basically trying to find the truth in anything.
But for now, life goes on.
So my recommendation is to enjoy the hell out of it. Don't take anything too seriously except the stuff you know you can control. And do what you have to do to get control over whatever you feel you need to make your life better.
At the end of the day that's really all we can do.

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