Quid est veritas?

I recently had an off-line discussion on the "Joe Tully/Tommy Byrne" imbroglio, in which I opined that we are in a period of transition and some will come a cropper as the rules change.  This isn't a good thing, but sometimes changing the rules is hard.  There is no joy in some being hurt because they didn't update quick enough.

Things are harder in the international arena, where there are no openly agreed rules.  In anther forum we were talking about the 15 August attack by 10 Islamic militants on Pakistan Air Force Base Minhas, located at Kamra in Punjab Province.  Some believe nuclear weapons are stred as Mina's Air Base, which was denied by Pakistani Officals.  Can we believe the denial?

This led to a comment from someone who has taught both overseas and at George Mason University, Professor Tracey Perez Koehlmoos, PhD, MHA:

Aside from the issue of nuclear weapons security in Pakistan, I think that you raise the issue of Truth.  Without waxing obtuse, Truth is a cultural concept—and I think it is one of our Western biases to believe or assume that Truth means that you are factually representing a situation.  In management courses that I teach when we talk about the qualities of the Great Leader, my international students will often laugh about our American assumption that we want a leader who is honest—as if that has anything to do with getting the job done well/increasing the lot of the people in your circle.  Whereas we might refer to something as being dishonest, another culture might see it as being a positive thing--to be so clever and to have used all of the resourcefulness to come out ahead.  Or as the lesson I took away from my students (mostly Saudis and South Asians)—"played us like suckers" because we bring our game and good expectations to the table, which they view as stupid naivety.

So, as Pilate asked, "What is truth?".♠  

Culture counts and a culture that is grounded, to whatever degree, in truth, is one that maximizes freedom for the Nth individual.  The rich and the powerful are not as dependent on truth as the Man on the Clapham bus. 

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  John 18:38.