“The truth will set you free. But not
until it is finished with you.”
– David Foster Wallace
I believe this
guy is my new philosopher-writer crush! And I love this quote because he
acknowledges the deeply rooted truth of the cliché, while at the same time
being clear that there is a gritty aspect to it that most of us don’t see
coming.
Summoning a
simple, genuine interest in being less full of shit than we sometimes are isn’t
easy. Facing the truth where our moral and ethical incompetence is concerned, is
often unpleasant to the extent we have been living with a bag over our head in
the attempt to avoid awareness of it.
And there is no
way to live in modern society refusing to play according to compromising game rules, without experiencing painful repercussions.
For one of the
side effects of choosing to live insightfully and truthfully, is that one’s
altered behaviour inadvertently and
necessarily exposes the moral and ethical incompetence of others, by
divinely removing the bags over their heads—something they will probably not
find desirable or pleasant either.
I don’t mean to
be excessively hard by pointing all this out. It just seems to me that the
point here is that we are all prone to more self-deception than we are
comfortable admitting to. And there is no way out of this painful situation but
through an investment in awareness.
Each of us will
need to face ourselves on raw terms (i.e. the truth) if we have any real interest
in liberation. We each help influence and shape the communities and societies
of which we are a part, so seeking the truth and letting it work on us is
important.
I believe that
this is, at least in part, what Wallace may be getting at. We need to let truth
have its way with us, let it speak to us and make us more aware even if,
initially, we find it unpalatable and painful.
It makes us
stronger people in the end, people who are a little more intelligent, a little wiser
and a little more human.
That, I think, is
worth suffering a little pain and humility for.
