Oprah Winfrey once declared at the Golden Globe awards, “I know this, that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.” Applause erupted as Merle Streep, and others nodded in agreement. Then Oprah declared her admiration for those women who have had the mettle to stand up and tell their story. Her second affirmation is praiseworthy and encouraging ... but her first statement is irrational and even dangerous.
While we all have our own stories none of us can have our own truth. Truth is irreducibly immutable. Unfortunately, many have embraced a notion of self-adjudication and see objective truth and values as a lack of respect for individualism. “Self” is now so sacred and inviolable that many treat reality itself as subjective. Henceforth, truth, defined as that which corresponds with reality, must first correspond with my experience and sentiments. Otherwise, “it may be valid for you, but not for me”.
However, students of history know that when truth becomes subjective then ideas and values inevitably clash and the fierce competition that follows is often deadly. When there is no longer an objective standard then the values and ideas of the powerful will always win. One hundred and twenty million people died in the last century because “might” meant “right.” Truth became whatever “I” say it is... and Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were doing the saying. Some races were no longer valued as human and to say differently was simply an opinion.
Tyrants are always emboldened when cultures ignorantly embrace illogical, personalized sentiments concerning right and wrong. They are empowered by the void left behind when consequential ethics and Divine principles die on the altar of self-determination. When the Creator’s decrees are personally deconstructed into meaninglessness, then the war of ideas begins... always. The winner will be the strong because when all ideas are equal then all people won’t be.
Confucius said 2,600 years ago that “when words lose their meaning, people lose their lives.” Words like male, female, human life, love, sex, marriage, right, and wrong are Divinely ordered realities. Defined by God, these immutable foundations are safe and so are we. Otherwise, one is entirely free to conclude that some people don’t like genocide and others don’t like broccoli. Sounds ludicrous, but unless one embraces an objective standard of values, which displaces his or her most deeply held opinions, then you may not like genocide, but you have no basis to say that it is wrong... that’s just your truth.
