Christian Quijas

History 101-60

Dr. Gibson

13 Feb 2021

RESPONSE 1

“Truth Lurks Behind Lies”

Truth-seeking is a passion. It is a destination with an infinite road that’s full of barricades

and voids. The truth will hide behind lies, behind misconceptions, behind confusion behind

hopelessness, and more. Leading a life of truth-seeking involves a tough mindset but a

determined one because seeking the truth means you will never be satisfied because there is truth

after truth after more truth to be found. Even though leading this life can be depressing all on its

own, those of us who choose it, choose it because a wise man once said: “The unexamined life is

not worth living” ~ Socrates.

In the article “Lie Spotters Social Studies Manual” author Rich Gibson, as the title

suggests, conveys a sort of manual which will help the audience look past or avoid all the

possible setbacks and barricades which will hinder someone from reaching the truth. The four

main points given are to: Criticize everything, ask radical questions, know yourself in relation to

others, and to engage and reflect. “Nothing comes from nothing” (Gibson, 2003). I believe this

conveys, in a simple way, why we should criticize and ask questions. For example, if you are

given information, do not just swallow it to memorize it. Understand it to memorize it. If nothing

comes from nothing, does everything come from everything? Make connections and determine

cause and effect and do not let yourself be mislead by your preconceptions or deceptions

 (whether they’re your own deceptions or outside deception forces). To me, “criticize everything”

means to have curiosity and, like I said previously, do not just take in information but rather

analyze it until you see the meaning behind the truth. Criticizing everything will lead to

questioning everything. This is Gibson’s second point. It is to ask questions which will help

break things down. For example, he states “Where does this come from? What is this connected

to? Who does it serve? What is the other side of this? What is unseen or unsaid? How can I get

from what appears to be, to the essence of something?” (Gibson, 2003). Questioning everything,

no matter how trivial the information may seem to be, it is important to break it down by asking

questions.

For example, if you are studying a difficult subject in a class (let’s say the chemistry of

the brain in Psychology) you can ask yourself: “What is Dopamine?” Then ask “What is it’s

purpose?” Then ask “Why is that important?” Then ask “Where does it come from?” Then ask

“What happens if we don’t have enough, or too much, or none at all?” and so on and so forth. It’s

about continuing a cycle of questions will help you build a brain diagram of this chemical (in this

example) and its functions, existence, importance, and more. From this article I learned, or rather

I’ve been reminded, that sources and accuracy matters. I always tend to forget things like this, of

course I am not naïve or gullible, or at least I’d like to think I am not, but I also tend to forget

that sometimes, everything needs to be not only double-checked but triple and quadruple

checked for accuracy and validity. It is very easy to have the wrong information and go on

without realizing it was the wrong information will then lead your theories and ideas become

jumbled up through these false assumptions. Eliminate all false assumptions as possible. It is like

accidentally and unknowingly using a negative instead of a positive (or vice versa) in an early

 step of a Math problem which will, if undetected, cause you to get the wrong answer. It is that

easy to be misled.

I think that truth-seeking is a very complex art, this short manual, and frankly no long

manual either, will ever do justice to how complex and difficult of a challenge getting to the truth

to a problem of either great or low difficulty can be. Things aren’t what they seem to be and

things change. For example, as Gibson states, “This is an element that is usually left unsaid. It is

like the wallpaper in a room, there but unnoticed” (Gibson, 2003). Looking past all your

generalized assumptions, preconceptions, and self or outside deceptions of what the truth really

is, looking past what you think reality is and seeing it for what it really is can be tough but

beautiful even when the truth is sad, it is the truth nonetheless.