Fact and fiction.
Prasoon Joshi (Indian Express,13/2) is right when he says emotions and beliefs are more important than facts for all of us. It has been so for the right as well as the left, for the fundamentalists as well as the liberals.The ‘post-truth’ is a new word coined by the left to stigmatize the right. Truth is a many splendoured thing like a diamond, and it has many facets. Everyone has his favorite facet or shade. We are all fundamentalists with our own truths and facts. It is all a story of the blind men and the elephant. Everybody is right and everybody is wrong. Yeats has put it neatly, ‘ The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.’ Hubris of the right or the left has place in the real world. Socialism and capitalism have failed bring to peace and prosperity. Pragmatism or the middle path is the only way. We have to heed Joshi’s call for a compassionate society where everybody’s voice is heard and everybody’s needs are met.
Feb.15,2017.
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