Knowing what’s really true isn’t as self-evidently obvious as we once thought. (Spoiler alert: it never actually was). But pursuing truth (or coherence, or values, or whatever language you want to use to describe it)—pursuing truth is necessary hard work. This is something desperately important for each of us to do.
Data can be manipulated by selective story-telling, but data is also an essential touch point to the physical and social world we live in. It keeps us grounded in reality. There’s a difference of course between, say, intentionally random sampled data and a web poll on MSNBC or Fox; but manipulation comes primarily from the stories we tell about data, not the data itself.
The stories, philosophies, and worldviews around which we construct our lives are a sort of two-way street. They are shaped by what we see, and touch, and explore, and experience—and they also are able to shape the things we see, and touch, and explore, and experience.
Have you ever had the experience of buying a new car, and then seeing that kind of car on the road everywhere? Or painting a wall in your house a particular shade of blue, and then discovering it all over? The “data” of that car and that blue were always there, but it is your new mental framework that is helping you actually see it.
We can go wrong by not basing our philosophies and worldviews on data. In other words, what we believe can become disconnected and abstracted from what we actually experience in the world. And we can also go wrong by allowing our beliefs to discount and ignore data points that don’t fit within our stories and worldviews, literally choosing to blind ourselves to experiences which don’t fit our conception of the world.
To stay open and fluid on both ends of that spectrum is hard work, but it is essential if my view of truth is going to remain rooted in and connected to our physical and social world, and not just rooted in my own desires and biases.
Comments