THE LIE OF “SPEAK YOUR TRUTH”
The lie that truth can be polemicized, personalized, or possessed contradicts its very nature.
In the life of language, “Speak your truth” is a relatively new catchphrase that’s been so quickly and effectively woven into common conversation, it no longer elicits the automatic repulsion it should. The phraseology has become so accepted, so inculcated into everyday interaction, it’s considered proper rebuttal, argument, source of insult and offense for any perceived infringement thereupon. From professionals to casual acquaintances, from therapists to social workers to coaches to teachers to mentors to friends to family, the cry to “use your voice” and “speak your truth” is so everyplace, many don’t notice the lie embedded within the very statement.
Foremost, the meaning and character of truth must be established to understand why speaking a personalized version is so flagrant a lie. Above all, truth, by its very nature and definition, must be eternal, constant, unchanging. There is no “times are different” in regard to what is true. There is no option for progress, for modernization in the determination of truth. There may be times when certain truths cannot be implemented. There may be times when truth is acknowledged then set aside for something like mercy. There may even be times when truth must be withheld as an act of safety, compassion, or the like. But never, never can truth itself be changed, or, not only is it no longer true, but it possibly never was.
This is where boundaries become blurry for some, as many advocates of truth oft confuse it for facts. Though truth and facts may overlap, they are not the same. Facts are measurable bits of data collected in all kinds of ways from the world around us. Facts can be tested, proven, established, hypothesized, theorized, and they can also change when new information or methods of gathering data become available. The inherent character and foundation of facts is not undermined in their modification; rather, facts, subject to human limitation and advancement, are subject to change accordingly. Even more, facts can vary according to the individual taking in information, as all sorts of variables affect intake and interpretation of data. A prominent feature of facts is their ability to change without undermining intent and purpose.
A changed fact is not a lie, but a new conclusion based on additional data collection or understanding. Here we must make mention of fondly recalled Pluto, once given full billing in the planetary lineup. It did nothing to deserve demotion, nor did the planet itself change, only human perception and data interpretation. The thing about facts is that the future always holds the possibility they may change, and that understanding is intrinsic to fact gathering. Facts try to determine truth, but they are not inherently truth. At most, facts design the human pathway in pursuit of truth.
Truth, on the other hand, cannot change or it is no longer true. Truth is not subject to variants, limitation, advancement, nuance, technology, time, et al, nor can it be halved or partial or in any way not whole and independent of outside variables. Truth itself is unchanging and constant, only the intake of it is not.
But what about relative truth? What about what may be true for one but not for all? What even is this truth everyone seems so intent on speaking and forcing others to hear?
Truth itself is not relative, but when something may be true for one but not another, it’s not truth that changes but its application. For example, what skill level is considered truly able to read? Depends, doesn’t it? If a kindergartner reads Go, Dog, Go! or some other book of simple words and few syllables, at his level, at his age, no meaning need be bent to assert he can truly read. All manner of comprehension and development is also determined by age. If a college student only matches the kindergartner in skill and comprehension, he isn’t considered someone who can read, as his age and progression mandate more. Thus, truth is understood and applied in accordance with age and stage. If the college student is considered a reader with only kindergartner-level skills that would be a warping of truth, rather than contextual application of it. And so it goes for all manner of age, stage, skill, and level.
Why then is “speak your truth” so much a lie? Because truth, by character and definition, is not only eternal and unchanging, but also objective and unable to be possessed. Truth is truth and exists as is no matter who sees it, knows it, heeds it, celebrates or embraces it. The moment that truth is paired with “your” its falsity is already exposed. Attempts to twist meaning and conviction from this inherently untrue phrase only bludgeons into unrecognition the very meaning of truth and its foundation.
“Speak your truth” more correctly means something along the lines of “speak the facts as you know them.” It doesn’t quite have the same ring, but the meaning is truer. It could also mean, “speak your perception of truth,” though that phrasing isn’t either likely to catch on despite its accuracy. Further, before the newly-minted “speak your truth”, it was more common to encourage someone to “express yourself,” tell things how you see it, how you perceive them to be, while acknowledging the bias and subjectivity of what’s being said. While only you can relay your personal perspective, your perception does not reality make. Or so we once believed.
Now, “speak your truth” is just another way of saying “tell us how you feel,” though feeling and truth may be related but are certainly not interchangeable. Even a feeling truly felt is subjective while truth is not. Truth does not rely upon feeling or it is not truth at all, as truth does not change, but feelings do. Moreover, someone may have a fraught relationship with truth, but any vicissitude in its conveyance occurs on the part of the individual. Truth remains truth regardless. Moreover, if the claim is that all this just comes down to speaking with honesty, then why the myriad articles, lectures, tips, tricks, and practices convincing people that truth and honesty is good and necessary in more words than just stated? Why this convoluted encouragement of truth so closely tied to further propagation of self-interest?
Because, like so many other aspects of modern society, “speak your truth” has unsurprisingly been revealed as just one more tool in the “self” arsenal aimed at securing validation and undermining enduring truth with malleable relativity. It’s decorated in terms like honor and joy and authenticity, voice and power, the ever-present your and self once more appended to everything we deem aspirational and of good character. If this is my truth, the language implies, then it cannot be challenged or contradicted. It cannot be labeled false. After all, how can anyone speak to what truth is to me, as my mind knows it from my own nature, nurture, and experiences?
And so returns the much abused specter of “language matters.” Words can be used figuratively, metaphorically, lyrically, hyperbolically, but words have precise meaning, intent, and definition nonetheless. All other ways to use a word are only made possible in recognition of that.
Examine the language of “speak your truth” propagators, and inevitably similar themes of self are revealed. As with the perversion of love, this so-called possessed truth is about honestly saying what you think. It’s about empowering you to be who you are and to live as your real self. Never mind that most deny or have no recognition of the truth of self. Never mind the pontification around being in touch with and supposed honoring of the newly-anointed authentic essence-self by those who deny the objective reality and makeup of a soul. Never mind that the inner truth you feel today may very well change by tomorrow, because it’s not truth but feeling and self-perception at the core of all this. Notice yet the commonalities?
It is true that no one can deny if an experience happened. It’s true no one can rewrite how that experience was handled or perceived or felt at the moment of occurrence. It’s also true that while all these may be real, they are not necessarily true. Because what one side perceives of an experience can be real for them, but that singular, subjective experience isn’t necessarily the objective truth. And to any about to disagree, just think if ever once you were the only one saying, or hearing, “I had a really nice time tonight…”
To say, “speak your truth” is an attempt to turn personal perception and experience into uncontested reality. To make inarguable that which is subjective. To render untouchable that which is only a glimpse of a whole. To turn the focus back on the self. The lie is further revealed in the reaction to its challenge, the perceived threat, instability, hurt, offense, et al, taken if someone doesn’t agree with a spoken, pronouned truth. Such truth stands on fragile foundation, the odds of its destruction heightened by refusal to validate. Such truth will not, cannot endure because such truth is closer to malleable emotion than truth.
Even more perverse, many practitioners advise speaking from the heart instead of the mind, as if skipping the advocate and judge of reason will lead to better outcomes. The focus is not either on the pursuit of truth, but on the speaker of a self-felt truth speaking from the heart-influenced mind and mandating that others listen, affirm, validate. Real truth needs no one else’s approval, it merely awaits discovery.
Thus, truth is not owned, possessed, or personalized, but recognized. As truth stems from the ultimate Truth of all existence, a Truth dependent on no one, time, or place, the manifestation we access and call truth also exists unto itself, immutable, unaffected by time, governance, or location. Whether someone is ready to admit it or not, the entirety of truth begins with the only true existence, Him Who Is-Was-Will Be, and every truth to follow can only be determined by its alignment with His will. Truth is something to strive toward, to reach, to accept, to embrace, not adapt to current whims, finite human perception, and fickle emotion.
Real truth is neither yours nor mine nor ours but universal, enduring, ageless and everlasting as the Creator Who Made it. Such truth needs no validation nor confirmation to persist, such truth is not threatened by those who deny or try to shut it down. Because it was and will remain constant, unchanged until it is ready to be accepted or found.
The ultimate, undeniable, enduring human truth is that we were not put on this earth to serve ourselves. We were put here for a purpose, and that purpose is the betterment of the world and life we were given in accordance with His will. Focus on that over all mutations and hyperfocus on the modern self will result in significantly less time to obsess over and distort the truth of self. A healthy approach to living with such purpose will anyway yield little desire to.
Real truth was here before us, and real truth will endure, unchanging, long after. Because unlike fictional, fragile Tinkerbell, truth doesn’t need anyone’s belief to exist.