Monday Mantra: Ask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies

A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation".

Every Monday I will post a new thought, idea, or focus for the week. When you need a breather from life, when you need a little inspiration, or when you're about to jump over the conference table and strangle your co-worker, remember the mantra.

Monday Mantra: The truth is sometimes a fine, thin line

Society6
Imperfectionist

I was talking with my friend today about the frailty of truth, of fact, of proof. Of how, even with the greatest advancements of technology and science, there is still so much speculation and so many conflicting data points in play that finding that one piece of evidence that proves something is one way or another beyond a shadow of a doubt is difficult. Sometimes, impossible.

This can be applied to many things: climate change, religion, politics, vaccines. Even forensic science, with the huge advancements it's made, is still quite frail in determining whether or not someone is guilty of a crime.

Part 1: The disparity between factual data.

My favorite example of this is GMOs. I've long been an advocate for the labeling of food products that have been, especially in the last decade or so, genetically modified. My reason list is long, but to sum it up: what you don't know can kill you, especially when it's in your food.

GMOs of today are not the GMOs of yesteryear. It's no longer seedless watermelons or hybrid pluots we're dealing with. It is very seriously altered chemical makeups of plants that contain DNA structures unnatural to them normally and, most importantly, with unknown (lengthy) scientific data to back up possible outcomes.

I argue this point a lot and people who don't see my overarching point argue that there's data (or Bill Nye) that show GMOs are safe.

Yep. There sure is! But there's also plenty of data that shows they aren't safe.

We're both right.

Confusing as heck, huh? How can the facts point two different ways?

Consider what we do know, what is a fact: Scientific data changes on the regular.

Here's a great example of what I'm talking about: Eggs, which have been made out as the villain, only to be redeemed as the all nutritious life saver of the food world. This happens time and time again and it's just one of many foods (and things, in general) that this has happened to.

One decade to the next what we're told to eat/do/believe and why we're told to do these things changes. And it changes dramatically. All because of new research and new data, all of which conflicts with other research and data because research is a finicky bitch. If you don't know what I mean, take a business research class. What it essentially comes down to is that the control groups and how things are handled must be perfect- and perfect doesn't exist. What works today in this group of people might not work tomorrow in that group of people, all because the sun was warmer or their DNA had a special defect or they ate one extra meal that they forgot to record. Everything is fragile.

(It's important to note that, sadly, many times research is not done by an independent party, which means collusion and money bribing often come into play. But we'll get to that next).

This is why we're constantly told conflicting things. This is why people argue to the bitter end. You will always find what you're looking for, whether you are for or against something. It's the world we live in.

The ultimate fact of all of this is that we won't know the finite truth until many years down the road, in most cases. It will not be until enough time has passed and enough proof has surfaced that something was either right or wrong. Sometimes that means, in the process of waiting, a lot of people can end up being hurt. I'm looking at you, Lysol ads from the 50's. And you, Agent Orange, that is affecting people decades later who weren't even in the war. If you don't know what I'm talking about, research these items. It is sad and true and awful. It is the exact thing I'm saying: We usually don't know the effects of something until decades have passed and it's too late.

In this instance, with GMOs, it means if I'm wrong, no harm. Literally- no harm. But if I'm right, and the data I look at is right, then lots of harm. Lots and lots.

My first point on this piece, in general, is that next time you argue with someone, please consider how many conflicting pieces of data there are in the world. Everyone can have their opinions, but there's no reason to be an asshole. Be open minded. Realize why one person feels one way and the other feels another.

My second point is this: When you're looking at something that is potentially harmful in any way, shape, or form, to you or someone else, consider erring on the side of caution. Consider how many things have been proven wrong in the past, years and years and years too late. Consider that if only someone had made one teeny tiny change from a cautious perspective a much better outcome could have occurred. Think about it. All I'm asking is for you to just think about it.

Then there's the flip side of how honest the world has really been with us. The almost overwhelming sense that for some things there must already be hard, cold, exact proof that A leads to Z. What usually happens in these case is that, once again, years and years and years later the truth does come out and yes, A led to Z like everyone thought all along.

What do I mean?

Part 2: Some truths are hidden on purpose.

One of the things that bothers me the most in this world are truths that are hidden, or altered, for the wrong reasons. Facts that are changed so that we are led to believe something that is, actually, quite false and quite dangerous.

There is information we, the people of this country, this world, are not privy to. For reasons of safety, for reasons of concern in uprising, for reasons of profit, success, greed. For reasons that are just and good and right, but also for reasons that are treacherous and terrible and wrong.

What we are told today might very well not be the truth tomorrow, and we might only come to discover that after it's too late.

Consider each of these scenarios that we now know far more about. Things that, at one time or another, were only speculation, rumor, or unknowns.

 - Argo: A finely kept secret for years. A good secret, one in which lives were quite literally saved because of the lies fabricated in order to successfully pull off the task at hand. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but doesn't it make you wonder how many other things exist within our government that we know nothing about? 

 - The Catholic Church's issues with molestation, rape, and pedophilia. To be clear, I'm not beating up the beliefs of Catholicism. On many occasions in this blog I've been clear that I support a wide range of beliefs. This is not what I'm talking about. The point being here is that there is so much proof (SO MUCH PROOF!!!) that countless people have been abused and that the church has hidden it for years, and why? That's the question you must ask. Is it a reputation thing? Is is the fear of loss in faith? Or is it the fear in loss of power and money? Regardless, why are any of those fears more important than the lives the church is damaging by not admitting the truth and fixing this once and for all?

 - The Space Shuttle Challenger was a focus point in one of my human resource classes. There is an excellent film on the events that led to this disaster, but to sum it up, while we know the issue was with the O-rings, the disaster that occurred could have been avoided if the people in charge had been more concerned about safety and less concerned about the reputation of their space program and the potential loss of money due to not launching.  

 - PG&E. I'm sure you've seen the movie and/or heard about what happened, so we'll sum it up like this. PG&E was an asshole and basically said, "Let's just dump all our toxic chemicals in the ground because it's cheaper and then lie to everyone about what's in their water." People got insanely sick. More lies. Erin Brockovich uncovers something, then kicks a whole lotta ass and brings some justice to the people affected.

 - Enron. I'll just leave it at that since we all know how effed up that story is. 

We are lied to: all the time, about all kinds of things, for all kinds of reasons. Unless we hold ourselves accountable to the truth and a high moral code, unless we hold our governments and leaders to this same accountability, and unless we question what needs to be questioned, this will never stop happening.

Part 3: What does it all mean?

Pay attention.

You can't ignore the influence of money and power. In absolutely every scenario I've written about there is a certain level of both of these being at stake. Money and power are constantly being used, being leveraged, being threatened. And because of those two items, those two things that aren't supposed to be the driving force of humanity, humanity ends up suffering.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it? If a GMO company is filthy rich and has far too much power, what is it willing to do to keep it? What is it willing to do to lead you away from the truth? Why is cancer such a money making business? Why is illness more profitable than health, in general? And how in the hell does child sex trafficking exist in a day and age when absolutely everything everyone does is monitored?

Somewhere, someone knows the answers to these questions. Someone knows the finite truths. And if they don't now, one day they will. Let's hope we all find out the truth when it's discovered and let's hope our world starts caring more about integrity and less about profitability.

Life is a dancing act between double edged swords. One way or another, you're going to get cut.