Dear Friends,
It seems to me, one can be obstinate like water, or ice. If water is poured on the ground, it conforms and penetrates. If ice falls to the ground, it just sets there. Until it melts it cannot penetrate. The difference is, ice is rigid and not subject to conforming, while water is liquid, and thus by it’s very nature it forms itself to it’s surroundings… the truth. Strike water and it will resist. If one is obstinate like water then, they can change if a new idea is superior to the old one, but they are not a pushover either. Obstinate like ice however, means one is unable to bend, and will shatter if forced to. Obstinacy can be a means to find and protect the truth, then seek its depth, else it can be too rigid, and so it becomes an impediment to the truth. The secret is to differentiate if one’s own obstinacy is ice like or liquid.
Post modernists claim all truth is relative. A relative truth however, violates the basic definition of the word, truth. Especially when applied to the objective and public. If someone says they didn’t “steal” a cookie, the truth of that statement is not subjective, but objective. The post modernist elites want to have it both ways. Their subjective “truths” trump everyone’s “truth.” Even as the truths of everyone else, objective or not, are discounted as a projection of the progressive’s own maladroit psyche, all truth is only a means to power. Their truths then, are actually a means to power, and nothing more. While we know that truths, like mathematics, history and science, empirically proven, are objective and thus true truths. The post modernist philosophy, is ice like obstinacy, “truth” must conform to them.
Others say with authority that truth is objective. If 1+1=2 always and everywhere, then that is a true truth, empirically proven and consistent throughout time. If however, that result is politically inconvenient, the master manipulator can argue effectively that 1+1=3. That doesn’t mean that if I have a diamond and add another to it, I will have a trio of diamonds, no, that magic math only applies to the elite. Their “truth” is that 1+1=3 to them, but something else to us. Else it could be that 1+1=4 to them and 1+1=0 to us. If truth is all subjective, then the subject with the most political, military and violent power, is always right. Clearly, that is an illogical situation. It’s only through logical manipulation that we can conclude… a white horse is not a horse, but a black or yellow one is.
While it may be possible both are correct. What if there is a kind of truth that is subjective and not simply a means to power over others? There is, the subjective feelings of love, hate, realization and revulsion. These kinds of truths are subjective and cannot be quantified by any expert. Such subjective truths however, cannot apply to the non subject. If I like the taste of strawberries, I can’t demand everyone else eat them. That would be insane. Some people don’t like strawberries. That’s their right. Subjective truths then, while they do exist, are not reason to force someone else to another’s will. To understand truth then, one has to realize there are subjective truths and objective truths. The subjective ones are personal, and not public, while objective truths are public and true truths.
Those who maintain that truth is only subjective are like ice. They are rigid and forcing truth on them will shatter them. Truth is indeed both. Water penetrates ice does not. Ice cannot conform to truth, but if we are like water, conforming to it and penetrating it at the same time, we gain a deeper understanding. Why should we care? Because those who understand the world, the wise, so to speak, have better life outcomes. The wise understand subjective truths lead to personal understanding, while objective truths lead to public understanding. Such people are malleable, while at the same time, resist the sudden onslaughts of crazy notions masquerading as truths that sweep nations, (like post modernism). Obstinacy can be like ice or water, the one leads to understanding, while the other leads to pain.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
