TruthTruth and Power - Essay Example

The pragmatic would dismiss any poetic values attached to or stem from the idea of truth; they would kill in an instant the spirit of freedom that truth may reverberate and would push away hope with the mere utterance of their dismal but intelligent-sounding ideas. Alas, the supercilious don't pause to read the emotions attached to what may be described as truth or the struggle for it.Such a definition of truth seems to have been advanced by Michel Foucault in his essay2, where he most aptly describes a recipe that may be used to concoct truth; a connection is exposed here between truth and power deeming truth to be an earthly entity with nothing more than a dramatized and accepted creation.

It must however be granted that this may be the view, 'truth' may project from a political angle.The trouble with such an idea remains its total denial of a selfless effort to expose the truth. While the reader may be able to make out similarities between Foucault's definition of truth and that which might come from a Marxist; Karl Marx at least took the trouble of keeping alive the struggle, to bring the truth to light and to overthrow those that might use the methodology to 'produce' truth as described by Foucault.

Thankfully, history does not forget the perseverance of those that stood for the truth. By Foucault's model, Jesus had to be politically powerful at the time he uttered the words quoted above yet that remains incorrect, why would he then describe himself as being the truth Bhagat Singh a renowned Marxist in India formed a political party of an essentially socialist nature during the British rule, yet at no time was he politically powerful, why would his words be heralded as the truth from that point on Did the blacks not gain power after the apartheid in South Africa Should not one then be quick to spot that the truth had to be brought to lifeAll these questions clearly indicate that although truth remains an illusory concept, it is not a 'mechanism'3 to be created at the whim of the dictator or the monarch.

A mechanism may be but a living one, fostered by the hopes and efforts of the perseverant, one that may not be snuffed out and one that will not dance to the tune set by those in power. This is perhaps exactly what Jean Dominique meant when he said "You cannot kill the truth; you cannot kill justice; you cannot kill what we are fighting for: participation of the citizens"4. These words were uttered at the height of his struggle as a journalist to bring the truth to light. Here was a man who risked his life every day not to gain political power but to expose the tyranny for the military regime.

Similar sentiments of struggle may be gleaned from the works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who-if anything-believed in the anti-thesis of the 'truth' described by Foucault. The truth he describes is one involving a similar struggle as Dominique's whereby the concept gets labeled as a 'gospel of freedom'5. Freedom, that comes through struggle and not through belief in the flimsy picture painted by a tyrant.It is surprising how utilitarian definitions of truth like Foucault's simply overlook how the world would have been different had there been no 'abstract concept'6 of truth to believe in; if no one had felt the need to bring before the world the cause for the injustice the blacks would still be in slavery, half the world under British rule with the monarchs heading the judiciary and the Pope teaching physics.

When looked at this from this angle it may perhaps be better than believing in Foucault's definition to bomb ourselves back to the stone age, because then at least we might get to start over."The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority"7 and so with the power being derived from the influence, it remains hard to see how authority could foster anything, particularly truth! While the concept of truth may remain illusory, it must also remain fanciful, poetic, invigorating, and beautiful.

It must strengthen the hearts of the young and fill with power the limbs of the old; what it must not do is cripple this generation and leave it bereft of the will to stand up and discover for themselves. the truth.