Truth and the Inner Voice
In the age of information, it is important not to confuse information with truth. Even more importantly, if a society is to achieve and sustain a harmony of interests, then this harmony must be based on a shared sense of what is real and what is the impact of one another’ behavior on the overall harmony of one’ society. Harmony requires truth. Information is ephemeral: events accumulate, cast ever-changing perspectives on motivations, intentions, meanings. If truth is not about accurate information, what is it? And again, what is the relationship of truth to freedom and harmony? If truth is about each individual inner voice, then perhaps the whole is like a mosaic, no one piece of which contains the whole but each piece of which contributes to making the whole complete. The key question then becomes, can harmony be found in a mosaic. If Adam Smith is correct in asserting that harmony of interest requires rationality, then must there be some shared, reason-based criteria of truth.
Obviously, the mosaic yields diversity—which is an inherent strength in building a sustainable society with true freedom. Some of the inner voices in a mosaic speak of complex meta values; some inner voices are askers of questions, some are seekers of power or wealth, some are harmonizers with the natural world; some inner voices are musical notes, some poetry, some color; some are passionate with love, some are passionate with hate; some feel called to commit genocide and build museums to house the relics of extinct cultures. Collectively, they constitute the range of possible ways of being human. Can harmony of interest arise from this human condition?
Between the choir of inner voices and the norms established in a society is the mediating role of the state. This is where Anonymous joins the conversation, suggesting the need for protection if harmony of interest is to be sustained. How the state can discourage such a private relationship is all too evident, and the Communist societies are cases in point. Mirek Juno said that having lived in a Communist society, seeing people capitulate to ideology, gave him some understanding of how the Germans became Nazis. Obviously, most states don’t offer much encouragement to the individual to attend to the inner voice, the belief being that doing so would be antithetical to the continued exercise of the power of the state. Individual thinking has always led to questioning authority—and disrupting at least one form of societal harmony.
The Collaborative Voice and Reform
However, one possible inner voice, one that perhaps is dismissed because it doesn’t fit the prevailing image of individualistic thinking, offers a different perspective on societal harmony. This is a voice that strives toward relationship, the builder of the web, also the compromiser. Two people in Hungary, who were dissidents, told a story about a doctor who decided that his mission in life was to bring the values and experiences of scouting (relationship with nature, culture, personal relationships, and so on) into the Pioneer youth movement of the communist system. So, he joined the Communist party and became an important person in the Pioneer movement. His position also gave him advantages in his career, but the couple who knew him saw his motivation as essentially related to a true calling.
