Truth meaning “how to live” or “Lived Truth.”
And in this “how to live” or “Lived Truth” category are subcategories relating to the practical aspects of living:
– what values to uphold
– what is precious
– what goals are worthy
– how do we account for the unexplained
– how do we engage with other beings
– how do we organize and understand the experiential world
– how do we align ourselves politically, ideologically, aesthetically (etc.)
The sum total of the points above (there may be more to add to that list) is what we refer to as “the truth,” but what we probably mean is “the truth of how we should live.” There is another type of truth, empirical truth, but that is not the truth I refer to when I use the word truth. Maybe we should officially designate this as the “Lived Truth.” The things we pursue inside a specific ordering of reality help us live a meaningful, worthy life.
Truth is often a light
But truth is actually a filter over the light, to limit what is relevant and important because we can not take it all in, all the time.
Lived Truth is born from patterns we see again and again. These patterns create certainty. They feel real because they’re consistent. Over time, observations turn into solid beliefs. The truth isn’t set in stone, but it feels that way due to its predictability. These patterns shape our view. What we see as truth is derived from the way we organise our observations of a somewhat consistent reality.
It’s an organization of beliefs. Religion is organized belief. Religion provides you with “Lived Truth” not truth that explains the facts of the world.
“Life orienting beliefs” is a term used by David M. Holley to describe the organization of beliefs. He argues that all people have “life orienting beliefs”. They arrange their lives around these beliefs either implicitly or explicitly, and religion is merely one of many ways to orient life. A belief system (organized belief) is simply how reality is ordered concerning meaning, value, importance, and worthy goals. Belief systems are not meant to be a reflections of empirical truth.
The Belief Shaped Hole
Humans have a belief shaped hole in their heads, says Sam Harris. You can fill it with anything. Reliigion, Science, Occultism. Anything.
My personal belief is that people need to believe, and believing is not about what is empirically true. Asking a religious person how they can believe in God when there is no evidence of a God misses the point. Ordering life around religious ideation is not about wether God exists or does not. At a fundamental level we all need to organize our beliefs and follow some system that maps onto the world at large. Please note I am not a religious person at all. I only believe that people need to believe. Beliefs filter the infinite. Beliefs are the sunglasses that allow us to stare at the sun without hurting our eyes.
Religions and other systems that organize beliefs create parameters for a “Lived Truth.” If we live within the parameters of a particular “Lived Truth,” then we live truthfully within a specific system. Everything we do, or experience is understood within that system. Entire lives are planned and revolve around this system. Whatever the system is, it provides context for meaning, value, love, self-worth, community, a sense of progression through a life worth living. Assuming that a simple lack of empirical evidence is enough to compel someone to stop living their chosen “Lived Truth” is unrealistic. It is no small thing to shake the absolute foundation of an individual’s reality.
Belief systems, or systems of “Lived Truth,” do not attempt to explain reality and what reality is, they provide a set of beliefs that help us discern how to live in an inexplicable reality.
“Lived Truth” is the strange substance between our inner selves and the outer world that must act as glue, grease, and gas. On the days when this substance can not hold things together, smooth our path, or fuel our journey, we fall into a state of doubt or uncertainty.
Truth & Politics
Systems of organized belief exist, and they probably always will. The most popular systems are large religion and the ideas of a political right and a political left. Systems of organized belief bind people together, and where there are groups of people with similar ideas, power can be harnessed. Belief systems become political tools or weapons quite easily. There is something about the way “the big political picture” is presented to us that seems to imply that we should choose one “Lived Truth” over a “lesser lived truth” and we are supposed to believe that this choice is somehow objective.
Every four years, we line up and choose one “Lived Truth,” over a “lesser lived truth.” We choose the way the story will be told to us. Our story, not their story. We don’t choose actual measurable change. The hierarchical power system is designed to be powerful over people irrespective of what they believe. We remain distracted by details of the story, while we invest all our energy in making sure that our “Lived Truth” is the one that holds sway. The entire process is convenient camouflage for the passage of power, power that flows continually away from the individual and towards “the power systems” we live under.
“This is the way” vs. “This is not the way.”
“Their way” vs. “Our way.”
“True for some” vs. “True for all”
The truth that can not be, is powerless. The truth that is, is powerful.
We invest politicians with our power in the hope that they will create the necessary space for our favored “Lived Truth,” forgetting that the actual purpose of politicians is to manage public opinion such that power and resources can continue to accumulate for the benefit of the few. I am in NO WAY making a case for communism, as far as I am concerned communism, socialism and all the other economic isms are just ideologies. I am however, making a case for each individual to have maximum power and sovereignty over their own lives regardless of the economic system. Empowered individuals create empowered communities.
Our belief systems, or our need to have a “Lived Truth” is weaponized against us. The idea of an “us” is weaponized against those “others” over there. Those other people who can not be right, because if they are right, then we are wrong and we are not wrong… Can a system of organizing beliefs be right OR wrong? More importantly, who benefits from our belief that one belief system can be more right than another system of beliefs? Power benefits.
While we are so distracted, while we are so invested in the “rightness” and “wrongness” of how beliefs are organized power continues to accumulate through political systems to the disadvantage of the immediate community. Dismantling power requires that we dismantle division first. We need to actively dismantle the illusion of division because political power builds itself in the imaginary space between them and us. The lifeline of power is that one “Lived Truth” can be “true for all.”
Power Over
Power over finds roots in force, domination, and control. Us vs. Them. Our system of belief vs. Their system of belief. Fear is usually the tool of “power over”. In a system based on “power over”, power is given to certain individuals or groups. The implication is that some people can have power and some can not. Power over is also viewed as a limited resource. Each relationship inside a system built on the idea of power over upholds the transfer of power from one person to another or one group to another. To benefit from this system of “power over” one has to also engage in maintaining it. Movements of power are enabled by formal or informal agreements and other external (or internal) factors. Can’t help but wonder if rallies against “power over” are really rallies against “their power over us” rather than rallies against “power over” in general.
Note on Magic Systems: Chaos magic seems to depend on power over, but the power used in chaos magic originates from “power within”.
Chaos magic requires certainty
But what if there are types of magic that require uncertainty and those types of magic are more powerful?
The Eternal Believer
In LLyria, The Temple Sect, which includes all the religions of the Empire is presided over by The Eternal Believer
Power With
Power With is collaborative power that comes through collective strength in spite of potential differences within the collective. Power With leans towards building bridges, providing solidarity, multiplying talent or resources or knowledge. It enables the ability to act together towards collective benefit. But what are the chances of Power With existing in communities divided by lines of difference, where both sides are tricked into believing that their side is the “Greater Lived Truth?”
Note on Magic Systems: I don’t think I’ve read that many books where magic is collaborative or based on the idea of “power with”. Harry Potter came close, but it was still individual magic combined rather than magic only available to a collective situation.
Power To & Power Within
From my reading, these are usually defined as two distinct types of power, but the way I see it, they are pretty similar and seem to come together. Power To refers to the “productive or generative potential of power and the new possibilities or actions that can be created without using relationships of domination.” It comes from the ability of each unique individual to build or shape their world. Power Within is about people having a sense of their own capacity (Agency). Power to is the ability (of one person, or a group) to create a difference in their world or life or to achieve goals. The end goal of both of these is to situate power in a place where it can be easily accessed by the individual or the group to create change for the better for the larger community. It’s almost as though the purpose of “power to” and “power within” is to determine and clear the pathways that enable change.
Note on Magic Systems: I am highly interested in creating a magic system that reflects these two types of powers and “power with”.
Where to start?
Ideally, one activity or thing needs to give rise to several distinct treatments. Each of those treatments needs to represent a type of power that will determine the way societies and cultures are structured. I just can’t seem to think of what that one thing could be.
The stories are supposed to be about the softer side of life and living. The focus will be less about war, or conflict, and more about cultural differences and social issues. I would like the backdrops of the story to be layered as follows:
* Distant background : “Belief Systems & Politics”
* Middleground : “Farming & Food.”
* Foreground : “Personal Relationships”
Hopefully a “thing” that I can build these ideas of power onto will turn up in my reading bearing in mind that it probably will need to relate to agriculture since I also want to use the idea of farms with multiple crops vs. mono-culture as some sort of subtext for ideas about diversity.