Veritas

In The Passion of the Christ Pontius Pilate has a line that I remember to this day:

Quid est veritas?

Said in English, it translates to “What is truth?”, a question he asked while in deep reflection about the decision to make concerning the life of Jesus. As a man who asked this question, I think he put himself into one of two buckets that I see in our society today; those who seek truth, and those who seek to erase it.

Your truth. His truth. Her truth. Their truth. And let’s not get started on pronouns…

Modern society has sought to undermine those who take a stand for objective truth, making them out to be totalitarians, racists, bigots, misogynists or outright fascists. Yet, there’s one thing about truth that even the most confused liberal mind cannot argue with, and this delves from the philosophy of Kant.

“What’s good for the bee is good for the hive.”

See, when you remove the concept of objective truth from the world, all of the sudden there’s a free fall into total chaos. What if my ‘truth’ about speed limits doesn’t coincide with the other drivers around me? What if my ‘truth’ about how much alcohol I should drink on the road doesn’t line up with the truth of those drivers?

You get a crash, and suddenly my ‘truth’ pollutes the sanctity, freedoms and even very lives of those other drivers.

One thing I love about objective truth is that it’s capable of standing against criticism, tough questions and even scenarios where it is fully fleshed out.

For example, in a monogamous marriage, it’s safe to say that the marriage will be completely free of STDs. Whereas in a “ENM” – that’s “Ethically non-monogamous” – you cannot have this sort of lifestyle and empirically say that neither party will bring an STD to the marriage, and that’s one of many examples where an empirical standard can withstand the test of infinity and time.

By this, I mean that if a certain action is repeated X infinity, without any limitations of time or space, then there are certain outcomes with must occur.

Were I to wake up and eat Cheetos for breakfast every day, it’s only a matter of time before my metabolism (as incredible as the Plaat genes are…) pays the price and I wake up a fat man. On the inverse of this, were I to wake up every day and stretch, exercise and take care of my body, it’s only a matter of time before my physical appearance approves and my body shows the results of the difference in habit.

Objective truth is also something that can be applied to every situation without deviation from its outcome. For example, when you accept that it’s universally wrong to commit a crime, a standard can be set and eventually those who commit crimes will pay the punishment, which makes the world a better place for those who don’t.

I’m probably going to piss of a lot of people by saying the words below, but I don’t care. They are true.

I’m a white man.

There’s a world outside me right now that wants me to apologize for being a white man, and I refuse to, because it’s who I am, nor do I accept the idea of ‘toxic masculinity’ – why?

Because there isn’t such a thing as ‘toxic masculinity’ inasmuch as there’s the reality that human beings, of both genders (remember those?) can be toxic.

I would accept the concept of toxic masculinity of there were certain things that ONLY men did. Yet, I have yet to find any scenario of bad human behavior that doesn’t apply to both genders.

For example, I know just as many women who ‘womansplain’ as I know men who ‘mansplain’. I also know just as many women who take advantage of the other gender as men who take advantage of women. Women compose 40% of the viewers of pornography, too.

I have seen just as many women abuse positions of employment to belittle others as I have seen men, and I do not accept the notion that somehow men are given a get-out-of-jail free card in the workplace.

As a white man, I’m also not a believer that I should pay the price for the sins of previous generations, any more than I ought to serve jail time because somebody else committed a murder. I reject the notion of generational guilt.

For those who are in favor of generational guilt, I might ask them – at what generation does it end? For example, many will point to slavery in the United States and demand that modern-day black people should receive reparations because of their generational trauma. To this point, I’d ask: should the tribes in Africa that enslaved each other also pay into reparations, or does the generational guilt only apply to white men?

Again, I’d imagine that I’ll piss off a lot of people with these words. I don’t care. These words need to be spoken, because there aren’t many people willing to stand on objective truth and state that it is their basis for their world views.

I believe in equality, too. What’s good for the bee is good for the hive. As a second generation dependent from Holland/Ukraine, I’m more than happy to calls others ‘African American” when they refer to be as “European American” rather than ‘white’, and I don’t believe that calling somebody white or black is any more or less disrespectful than the other.

Am I a racist? Well, as a white man, I’d say that the current world is actually geared more against me than minorities. See, there are currently jobs in the state of Texas that require full board approval to hire a white person/non-minority, and I don’t think that’s very nice. If I were to apply to graduate school, it would be more difficult for me to be accepted at a school than a minority.

In schools these days, it’s very common to have ‘safe spaces’ for minority students, which include the LGB community. There would be total uproar if straight white students create a similar ‘safe space’ to conduct their studies. That’s a fact.

There are certain realms where our society has accepted skill-based applications – which include professional sports. Mark Cuban recently blasted Elon Musk for his stance on DEI, and Musk simply responded with (paraphrased):

“When can we expect to see a white/asian woman playing on the Mavs?”

You want to play on the Mavs? You’ve gotta meet certain requirements, show a measure of skill and be a certain height. If Cuban promotes DEI, he ought to extend this to the Mavs, and I would demand that we see at least one “little person” on his lineup next year, otherwise it’s safe to say that his selective with his principles – said differently, a total hypocrite.

See, when you apply certain principles universally across the board, there’s a point where there’s either chaos or true equality.

Even the most adamant fighter for DEI would likely hope that a surgeon for their child’s brain surgery got into medical school/their job because of their skill, rather than because they met a diversity requirement.

Leveling the playing field in our world makes things better for everybody, while making certain exceptions and shortcuts results in a small amount of time until chaos ensues.

As an adamant fighter for truth, reality and facts, I’m not afraid to share my thoughts, because I welcome any opposing view that can counter them with the same fact-based approach I’ve used to build them. Additionally, I’m more than open to change my mind if the right facts are in place, because I believe that’s how true change happens.