The Matrixian era is best identified by the word “Post-Truth”, defining it as follows: “the era in which true and objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion of personal beliefs that are based on subjective and emotional concepts.” But what is truth? What is the criteria to discriminate between truth and error that I can control when I read the newspaper, when I browse the social network, or when I chat with my friends?
For a long time, knowledge has been reserved for the elite. Even two thousand years ago, already in Jesus’ time, in order to know the “truth” one had to attend religious schools with religious leaders of that time. Things have not changed much today. In fact, paradoxically, in a world with high-density information, to filter truth from error, my dependence on others is even higher. Today, the information circulated has little to do with the truth, but rather it is often and willingly enslaved to power, which manipulates and distorts in order to strengthen its own supremacy.
But who really cares about truth? Even I am happy to follow the ‘waterfall’ of information without questioning, believing something just because everybody else believes or following what the leader or the current authority says. Or, in addition to prayer and the Word of God, could I rather use the intelligence and the critical ability given to me by my Creator?
The wide road which goes downhill continues to attract the majority of people of all times, including and especially those of the “Post-Truth” era. It is not by chance that the North Star of the true fans of Jesus, the Bible, urges me to enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way spacious that leads to destruction, and many enter therein. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and there are few that find it. (See Matthew 7: 13-14)
The truth is seldom easily accessible, but often it gladly comes as a result of long and complicated research, reflection and insight. And I can be certain that the Matrix will never use the truth as its ally. Then it becomes vitally important to find a North Star to gather my bearings in the boundless ocean of information. What is my North Star that will enable me to discriminate between truth and error?