I recently wrote about a wonderfully nostalgic (for me) documentary about John Lennon and the making of his album Imagine. For some reason ever since, I haven’t been able to get out of my mind his somewhat quirky song, “Gimmie Some Truth.” It’s typical hard-edged Lennon speaking “truth to power,” or something like that. It’s almost quaint looking back at it from our 21st century “post-truth” age. That term is politically loaded, so not as helpful as understanding the philosophical assumptions of postmodernism that got us here. In case you’re not familiar with it, the term came from a response to modernism, an Enlightenment concept that objective truth exists, and is accessible to reason. On the surface that doesn’t seem particularly controversial, but reason ended up becoming rationalism, the idea that reason was the only way to know truth. Every other means of knowing was discounted as invalid. But paraphrasing Jesus, man shall not live on reason alone.
In the 18th century some thinkers embraced Romanticism in reaction to rationalism, but they still believed that “truth” exists. Once Friedrich Nietzsche in the late 19th century took the Enlightenment to its logical conclusion, postmodernism was born. To drastically simplify, Nietzsche introduced us to the age of “true for you, but not for me.” When it comes to religion and morality (to a very selective degree), postmodern people don’t believe in any kind of objective truth that applies to all human beings at all times. In these two areas, people can believe whatever they want, and just because they believe it, they think that makes it true for them. John Lennon would have none of that, God bless him. If he were still alive he might make a new “song” called, Revolution 10: Truth!
https://youtu.be/OzWR0wLH360
In our day his lyrics would indeed be revolutionary:
I’m sick and tired of hearing things from
Uptight short sided narrow minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic psychotic pigheaded politicians
All I want is the truth, just give me some truthNo short-haired, yellow-bellied
Son of tricky dicky’s
Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocket full of hopes
Money for dope, money for ropeI’m sick to death of seeing things from
Tight-lipped condescending mama’s little chauvinists
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
I’ve had enough of watching scenes from
Schizophrenic egocentric paranoiac primadonnas
All I want is the truth just give me some truth
I’m not sure, of course, but I think Lennon would get Aristotle’s law of non-contradiction, that two contradictory things cannot be true in the same way in the same relationship. Or, A cannot be non-A. Or something cannot true and false at the same time. Seems simple enough, right? Not so quick. Stop the proverbial man, or woman, on the street, and ask him or her if Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity are all true for those who believe their teachings. They will say, looking at you like you’re a Martian, of course! They may even ask, “Haven’t you seen the cool coexist bumper stickers?” We could all just get along if we just get beyond that silly anachronistic notion of truth! If John Lennon was consistent he would reply, stop! Just gimme some truth!
The reason postmodernism is false, as are its coexist adherents, and John Lennon right, is because each of the religions I referred to above make contradictory claims. It’s sad that I even have to write such a thing, but the myth of postmodernism has a strong hold on the psyche of most of our fellow Westerners. Briefly, Christianity claims something the other religions deny: that Jesus of Nazareth died on a Roman cross, was buried, and three days later rose from the dead. If that’s true, all other religions are false. Full stop. If that didn’t happen, then Christianity is false, also full stop. Maybe the other religions are true, but if they are, Christianity isn’t, and if Christianity is, they are not. It’s actually very simple.
The horrifying implication of postmodernism is that if there is no “truth,” then all that’s left is “the will to power,” in Nietzsche’s logical conclusion to “the death of God.” Think about it, if truth doesn’t exist, if there is no standard that exists outside of our mere preferences, then only might will make right. If truth in fact exists we may disagree, but we are arguing about something that exists beyond our own preferences. If truth doesn’t exist, then whoever has the biggest stick determines what “truth” is.
If just for the survival of human civilization, and I believe there is much more at stake than that, I’m with Lennon: All I want is the truth just give me some truth!
Recent Comments