Text-based art

Don’t let the truth get in the way of your opinions

This piece of text based art is a statement concerning truth and opinions, and the way that they are often unrelated. People often hold opinions in total defiance of the truth. When I say ‘people’ I mean everyone.

We sift and filter the truth so that we only notice the bits of it that conform with the way we want things to be. People tend to hold views based on what they want to believe, and what they want to believe is generally based on their personality and their circumstances, not on evidence.

A person who possesses an authoritarian tendency either as a result of genetics or of life experience is quite likely to gravitate towards political ideas that espouse authoritarian approaches to running society whether or not that approach is the most appropriate or not. For instance, someone who feels insecure in their personal life because they were, unlike their friends, lousy at sport, may be attracted to the certainty of authoritarianism. Such people would back a dictatorship because of their humiliation on the football pitch, not because of their deeply considered analysis of the dynamics of dictatorship. It’s not got a lot to do with politics

Similarly, someone from a privileged and affluent background, someone who’s never had to struggle too much to get on well in life and who’s never felt threatened by life’s unfairnesses may well espouse liberal opinions because liberal opinions are generally nice and they make their espousers feel good about themselves.