The Value of Truth
Yu Heng Tiu(Hank)
ENG 102
27th February 2013
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Blindness is a condition where humans lack the ability to see physically through the
naked eye, yet even for people whose eyes can catch a glimpse of every object in the world are
also considered to be blind, as they often couldn’t see the naked truth. People are often
manipulated to what they see or hear, yet there is no principle that defines the things we hear and
see perfectly true. There should be no restrictions for us human beings to discover the truth, yet
there are certain obstacles concealing us from it. Walker Percy believes that we humans are lost
and we cannot really understand who we are, what we do and how we feel. Plato believes that
the majority of the people have often become a follower rather than a leader. Both Percy and
Plato have their own views on how “blind” most of the community has been evolved into. People
have their own rights to know the truth, and to know the truth is to think beyond of what we see.
In Percy’s The Loss of the Creature, “A reader may surrender sovereignty over that
which has been written about, just as a consumer may surrender sovereignty over a thing which
has been theorized about.”, Percy was showing that most people give up their power to gain
knowledge in which they don’t know of and are often influenced by things that are written or
defined. Plato once stated,
“Our complex friend stands behind his fellow tourists at the Bright Angel Lodge and sees the
canyon through them and their predicament, their picture taking and busy disregard. In a sense,
eh exploits his fellow tourists; he stands on their shoulders to see the canyon. Such a man is far
more advanced in the dialectic than the sightseer who is trying to get off the beaten track –
getting up at dawn and approaching the canyon through the mesquite. This stratagem is, in fact,
for our complex man the weariest, most beaten track of all.”
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The complex friend is the tour guide for the tourists at the Grand Canyon. The tourists are
influenced by other people of the famous canyon, yet their first physical reaction when they
arrived was taking pictures. Their actions of taking pictures brought out no purpose to seeing the
true beauty of it in the tour guide’s eyes. The true purpose of the tour guide standing on one of
the tourist’s shoulders was to get the tourists’ attention and show how lost they were into a
dimension where everything they think is written and defined perfectly, never given a thought of
why and how it is defined. Hence, the tourists weren’t truly grasping the true beauty of the
canyon.
Considering an example of a student taking a history class, the students are lost and
surrendering their power to gain knowledge of history in class, but the students are never given a
thought of why history was written in that sort of way, what defines the history that we are
learning is actually true and who defines the it. Referring to an old Malaysian history about a
local folk hero called “Hang Tuah”, history once said that he was a legendary warrior who
displayed loyalty and justice by bringing an end to Hang Jebat, who was a close companion to
Hang Tuah once and eventually went mad with power after dethroning the Sultan. History once
said that Hang Tuah was a Malay, but there were rumors and scientific facts showing that he is
Chinese. Scientists have analyzed the DNA of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat, and found that its
origins came from a Chinese descendant. Another fact is that the surname of “Hang” does not
belong to any traditional surname in Malay, and the Malay does not use surname from past
generations to begin with. In every school of Malaysia, the history of Hang Tuah will always be
written as a Malay warrior. Students have already got this part memorized into their brain, no
longer having to wonder if Hang Tuah was ever a Chinese warrior. They don’t bother to think
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over about the racial problem, they just accept it as history.. Percy’s trying to send us a message,
stating that we are lost, in which our lives are easily distracted to what is defined by societies and
environment, we need to seek out the true purpose and meaning in our lives.
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” style of using dialogues between his mentor Socrates and
his brother Glaucon, was to explain how the community is often a follower than a leader.
Throughout the story, Socrates and Glaucon were portrayed as prisoners gazing over shadows of
statues that were emanated from the emitting light of a fire. This scene describes how the
prisoners are being stuck in the darkness, gazing at the shadows endlessly and never in search of
the light. The prisoners in the allegory represents most people, always stuck to the shadows
which represent in reality is what we hear or view daily, like the news and the light represents
the reality of the world, The Truth.
In 2011, there was a protest movement in Malaysia called “Bersih”, where citizens of all
different races like Malay, Chinese and Indian all gather to form a peaceful protest, where the
people demanded free, clean and fair elections. It was a simple and peaceful protest, where the
citizens did a simple march and gathered to gain their own rights without any unnecessary
violence. The yellow shirt was a symbol of the protest, yet many of the people got arrested
before the protest, and they were being arrested just for wearing a simple yellow shirt. During the
protest, when every people were gathered for the protest, police came in armed with shields and
batons to drive the protestors away. The police even fired tear gas directly to the people upfront,
and started beating them up whenever anyone was in their way. Tragically, the law enforcement
even drove their cars to smash them off and eventually got a man killed. The aftermath of the
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protest was disastrous, as many people were injured and a person passed away. After the protest,
the arrested protestors who were wearing the yellow shirts were released.
Najib Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia spoke on CNN news, stating that the police
were only using minimum force to disperse the protestors and ensure the safety of other citizens.
Wikipedia reported that the man who was actually killed in a car crash by the police died
because of a heart attack. There weren’t any broadcast showing innocent victims being arrested
just for wearing a simply yellow shirt and Najib even said that the police had done their part of
the job to ensure the protection of the people. None of them even realized that the citizens of
Malaysia didn’t need protection from the protestors, yet they only require protection from the
law enforcement and the government. The unjust arrest of the innocent victims wearing simple
yellow shirts and the injuries and death that the police had caused were not mentioned in the
news and were reported with false lies. Other than Malaysians who knew the truth behind the
scenes of the “Bersih” movement, people all over the world will never really found out about the
real truth. People from around the world should know the truth about the movement, about how
unfair the government is and how mortifying the law enforcement of Malaysia had brought upon
their country.
The news may be a source for people to gain knowledge, information and facts around
the world, but people never question whether the news reported were either true or false, they
easily accept it. The media have betrayed and brainwashed our minds, we accepted it quickly as
if it was a brother of our brotherhood. As part of the human race, we have the ability to think. In
Plato’s mentor, Socrates’ view “We have our own responsibility to think”. Basically, Socrates is
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saying that we should think beyond of what we perceive. If we don’t think beyond that, we may
not even find out the truth. In Plato’s ‘Allegory’, we are listening to Plato’s perspective who was
inspired by Socrates. We are the prisoners of darkness and that we are often trapped to not see
the reality there is in the light. Plato is encouraging us to understand the truth and how important
that brings to us.
There are people who think ahead of themselves to question about the ‘Truth’, not
everybody is lost in their way from the truth. The matter is that these people are often part of the
minority and it is hard to get the majority part of the people to agree with it. As the prominent
philosopher Socrates puts it, “It is not easy to be in the minority”. The same example about the
students and history class given above could be said, as not all people never think of how history
was defined the way it is. The minority of the students may not think the same way as the
majority who agrees to the history being defined perfectly, yet the minority agreed with the
majority out of the fear of not being accepted by society. Another reason is that the majority
might not face the truth casually as the minority. During a scene in Plato’s ‘Allegory’, when the
prisoners were released, they were heading on to the blinding light. The light was immense for
the prisoners to withstand so they shielded their eyes from the light and returned back to the cave.
The light was unbearable for the prisoners who have become too adapted to the darkness.
Average people have been living in a society which was things were thought to be defined
perfectly for years, for them to face the reality and understand the truth can be a little
overwhelming for them to catch on. People have been too accustomed to being a follower, they
need to be enlightened and rethought themselves over to become a leader. Just like how Percy’s
example of the tour guide showing guidance by standing on one of the tourist’s shoulders to the
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tourists on the canyon. Then the tourists would be enlightened by the tour guide to realize the
true purpose there is to the Grand Canyon and then to become a leader, not a follower.
Gaining knowledge and truth of something new is not an easy task, as we are often afraid
to embrace it, especially when we followers are too adapted to the reality that everything we see
or hear are defined for us. We never bothered to question ourselves “why” and seek out what is
actually the truth. The truth itself is more valuable than to any gold we can mine, and we have
our own rights to know it. The task of embracing the truth may be formidable, but we ourselves
need to be enlightened and act differently to seek what is known to be the ‘Truth’. The ‘Truth’ is
like a chameleon, it lurks around everywhere in its camouflage and sometimes it is right in front
of us when we don’t suspect it, to catch it is not to think as a follower and follow its tracks
endlessly, but to think as a leader to lure the chameleon to us.
Bibliography

Botton, Allain de. “01 - Socrates on Self-Confidence - Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness”
Youtube. 23 May 2012. Web. 13 Feb 2013

Jacobus, Lee. A “Plato: The Allegory of the Cave” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings
for College Writers, Fourth Edition. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin Press, 1944.
501-512. Print.

Percy, Walker. “The Loss of the Creature”. N.p.n.p. 1975. 1-6. Print.