9-11 marked the end of reality and the beginning of our post-truth era. It exposed something greater and more disturbing than the lack of trustworthiness in our government and media. What it exposed was that our construction of reality based on the fragility of facts had failed us. As Werner Herzog says, facts do not create truth, they create norms, and they do not create an illumination.
Our world on the 10th was not compatible with the events of the 11th. I remember the thing I’d heard almost everyone around me say over and over again was how none of it seemed real. The second plane hitting the tower was mistaken as an instant replay for many who saw it live on TV. The people slowly descending at terminal velocity were not dying in the ways we had seen on TV or in movies. The truth of what we were seeing was not compatible with the truth of what our reality had become based off of.
It was our experiences which were no longer real. Our sense of reality had been mutilated and distorted for so long that we couldn’t even understand it as such. We woke up on the 11th to discover that our reality had become extinct. Since then we’ve been forced to deconstruct everything down to its hollow core in order to audit how factual it might be. This has left us in a world which cannot hold any truths, maintain any beliefs, or sustain any construction of reality because again facts do not create truths.
Every fact is subject to perspective. Every scientific discovery only serves as a placeholder until the next revelation of fact. Truth is more than this. For instance Vitruvius did not base his architecture on facts, but on principle such as stability, beauty, and utility. These principles can serve the architect to fulfil their purpose quite well, although no monument, no building, no construction of man can ever last eternally either.
What we should learn from all of this isn’t to question facts, place blame, or restructure trust and power. We should learn how to face the dangers of reality without being stuck in the mire of impermanent facts and dependency on eternal standards. We should learn to create our own illuminations based on things like stability, beauty, and utility.
Stability has to take into account more than facts and consider things such as conflicting perspectives and balance. If there is a piece of paper with text printed on both sides and someone holds it up to read one side, and then another person comes by to read the back of it, then who’s to say what the truth of the page’s contents is? Both readers have half of the words of course, so most people would concede that each reader has half of the story. I would point out that this is only the facts of the words, and not necessarily the intention of the words author, and even the author would only be able to attest to his/her own truth of the words intended meanings.
In order for there to be any stability in this metaphorical page it must balance the conflicts of various perspectives. The US Constitution was constructed based on a similar idea of stability using things like amendments and compromises as parts of its construction. This particular document has proven to be more stable than the lives of those who created it, served to protect it, or focused on preserving it. Note how this document begins in the preamble…
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The construction of this document does not start with a list of facts and references. It begins with a statement concerning the nature of its purpose for existing, or its utility. This utility is not based on facts either, but on things which might very well be described as illuminated truths. Justice, tranquility, and liberty are not facts of this world, and in fact they are not based on facts either. These are things largely in direct conflict with the natural world as nature does not care about whether or not an innocent deer is murdered by a speeding vehicle or dies of old age. Justice is not a fact then, but an illumination which goes beyond the sort of accountants’ truth.
I leave the principle of beauty to discuss last as it seems to be the most ephemeral and yet the most enduring as well. We all have certain tendencies toward what we consider to be beautiful, yet there are many art forms, many cultures, and almost infinitely many conflicting standards of beauty throughout all of them. There is no fact of what is considered beautiful; it is something which simply creates an illumination in the beholder’s eye. In evolutionary terms many aspects of beauty are detrimental to the survival of a creature. The peacock’s feathers attract the attention not only of mates, but of predators for instance.
Many of the beautiful things in this world come at such great expense and require so much more resources, time, and effort in order to create or preserve. The fact of beauty is that it is largely a detriment to the preservation and prolonging of life in many ways. This would lead anyone trying to create a reality based on facts to simply conclude that beauty should be either looked down upon then or ignored. From the view of an illumination though, it would be insane to consider a world which did not dedicate itself largely into the service of beauty. What kind of world would be worth living in at all if it were devoid or impoverished of beauty?
So I conclude my diatribe on the lessons of September 11th with this thought. Reality has come to an end, and we are indeed living in the wake of a post-truth era where facts can no longer be used as the solitary basis of our world. This is not the tragedy of 9-11 though; the tragedy lies in the real loss of that day, the lives, the dreams, the hopes, and beauty of so many human beings. There is nothing which can avenge the loss of life or anything else within our reality.
All we can do is try to do our best with whatever it is that we have left, which is much more than the fragile and insufficient facts of what may or may not be true. This post-truth era can be something much greater than the wake or funeral procession mourning the end of reality. It can be the beginning of much greater illuminations, and can perhaps transcend our understanding of truth as we’ve previously conceived of it.
Now is the time for greater dreams, greater truths, and greater illuminations. It is within us all. It is burning to get out, and there are no facts which we should allow to cast a shadow over this great light. The stability, utility, and beauty of this world is waiting for us to realize our dreams and transcend the end of our reality. There is no darkness which can stand a chance if only we can be brave enough to allow ourselves the beauty of truth’s grand illuminations and dare to dream against the dark.
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