LIVING BEHIND THE TRUTH

LIVING BEHIND THE TRUTH

By: meer ishaq

âWhen we perceive any object of a familiar kind, much of what appears subjectively to be immediately given is really derived from past experience. When we see an object, say a penny, we seem to be aware of its 'real' shape: we have the impression of something circular, not of something elliptical. In learning to draw, it is necessary to acquire the art of representing things according to the sensation, not according to the perception. And the visual appearance is filled out with feeling of what the object would be like to touch, and so on." âBertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind.

The perception of reality is primarily extracted from the available information. Human society during the course of its development has undergone the change of the perception of reality. Therefore, this perception which was initially based on imaginations, turned to be more realistic. This relatively realistic perception mostly owes to the information system evolved in the development of human society.

Modern societies live in the era of information technology where the development of technology has brought information to every corner of the world. Although this reach of information has done much to clear out the realities behind number of events yet it has not succeeded in building a realistic approach to every event and happenings. Yet there are certain matters where the information about reality either not exist or is vague which create false and ambiguous perceptions.

In both developed and underdeveloped societies of modern time masses spent most of their life living behind the truth. They live with their specific perception of reality. This perception is mostly based on false and exaggerated information. A huge population in Europe and America donât believe in the human travel to moon, the happening of holocaust, the state information of Nine Eleven attack and many other issues. There are different perceptions on each of these events where a portion of population is made to believe on one version of truth while the rest believe on another. These all are happening in the well informed and well literate societies.

In developed societies either government or influential groups bring conspiracy theories to exploit the events. In such societies conspiracy theories emerges due to lack of trust for authorities and the sources that are exposed with their false claims. In such circumstances, the lake of concrete information and distrust creates the environment where conspiracy theories can easily nourish.

Unlike the developed world, where getting real information is relatively easy, in the developing world the masses yet struggle to have the basic right to information. Masses in such societies either entirely or in majority live their life with false believe and exaggerated information which shapes their perception of reality in a predefined way. Such societies are hijacked by certain groups or forces of political and commercial nature. These forces define the reality about the basic political and social happenings according to their interest and then this perception is conveyed to the masses. The controlled system of information also makes it easy for the influential groups to create and propagandize conspiracy theories.


Conspiracy theories and false claims have been used for the purpose of both exploiting the masses and to overthrow oppressing regimes. Powerful groups and states own the institutions and technologies which they can freely use to propagandize such conspiracy theories. While the anti-oppression groups have their limited sources but still their version of conspiracy theories has its own ground. They are mostly successful in their objectives to reduce the trust on the authorities and shape the public opinion in a particular way âfor a revolution or overthrowing a regime.

In these both cases the masses are deprived from the real sense of political and social happenings around them. What they see and what they believe to be the reality is actually an engineered truth. This version of truth doesnât satisfy the universal realities and also donât give its audience a real account of the events which make that certain thing to happen. Bertrand Russell writs in his book The Analysis of Mind, âit is necessary to acquire the art of representing things according to the sensation not according to the perception.â Therefore, things must be conveyed according to their existence in the surrounding no according to the specific perception which we want to build.