Monday, May 15, 2006

The Truth is Out There.... Or really?

Any X-File fan will recognize this tag line -- The truth is out there. However, I just came to a conclusion that there is no real truth in this world. All that we have is opinion. We may have some so called "evidence" to support our views, but in the end we still need to count on our judgement and decide what we want to believe. THERE IS NO TRUTH.

Just take Bible and Da Vince Code for example. Which book is telling the truth? For me, the question is irrelevant. Does it MATTER? We have no way of knowing the answer anyway. No one knows exactly what happened 2,000 years ago. Even with so called "prove" or "historical evidence", those are made or written by men, people just like you and me who are biased and subjective regardless how hard we try not to (sometimes people don't even try). On top of it, people will still believe whatever they like to believe, with or without any evidence whatsoever. The discussion will never end. EVIDENCE or FACT carry no importance here. What really matters is which book is more popular and can outsell the other one.

For years, I was trying to argue with people that God does not exist. There has been absolutely NO solid scientific evidence in this physical world to prove the existence of such divine concept. However, people continue to believe in this absurb concept, an invisible man who has all the power and loves you, your dogs, and everyone else but he just won't stop you from a heart attack or a fatel car accident. In US, the people believe in the concept of God outnumber those who don't approximately by 4:1. Bible is the all time best seller. It is arguably the most successful literature piece ever written by men. Arguing about evidences and facts are fruitless. It will not change a thing. It won’t get you anywhere.

What we really need is simply another best seller, something like Da Vince Code, to compete agaisnt Bible. It doesn’t matter if the book is historically accurate. As long as people are buying it, reading it, talking about it, and believing it, I will say it is accurate. The only weapon we have is best sellers like Da Vince Code.

The same thing goes with any other types of history. No one can clearly remember what they ate 5 days ago, let alone what happened 500 years ago. All we have is our less than perfect memory when it comes to what happened in the past. History is always written by the winners, an extremely sujective group of people. Losers’ view will never be presented as their version will never outsell the other side. Therefore, for any historical arguments, facts and evidences are also having a small impact.

Let's take Nan King Massacre for example, it is utterly useless to argue with Japanese right-wingers by presenting facts. People will believe what they WANT to believe. In fact, we don't need to persuade those right-wingers at all (we will never be able to anyway), and we just need to sell our version of the history to third parties, such as Americans, British, German, and etc,. How do do so? Once again, not by facts. All we need to do is the have a best seller, either a book or a movie that tells people the version of history we prefer. Mass media and pop culture allows you to reach millions, or even billions, in a rapid fashion. For example, the movie Schindler's List is 1,00o times more powerful than any discovery of so-called "hard evidence" regarding what German did against Jews. Schindler's List is such a great movie that it creates its own version of history. I, for one, believe in that version. For the same reason, all we need are best sellers!!!! Either books, or movies, or music, or anything!!! Cultural influence is the only way to go. That’s why I believe the so called "boycotting Japanese products" movement is childish and will achieve nothing. The easiest way to combat Japanese right-wingers is to raise enough money and ask Steven Spielberg to direct a movie called “Nan King massacre”. This is the easiest and most efficient way to end the arguement once for all. Oh, we do need to have a good screen writer to come up the script. :-D





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