a. a. gallagher
5 min readJul 12, 2019

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On Truth & Cynicism

unsplash — Joel De Vriend

“In the Name of the Father, The Son and into the hole he goes” so said the children as they baptised the family cat in the washing line prop hole at the bottom of the garden.

Perception, hearing and intuition are not always the way of truth. Not even if all the senses are homogenised and amalgamated into one. Often the written word is said to be the only process through which truth shines, but unfortunately how often have you heard “don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper”.

The perception that the written word presents us with the truth is I believe, at serious risk and gives rise to cynicism amongst most of us. More and more it appears in these ever expanding times our direct spheres of truth and dependability on its origins, is diminishing.

Can you, or more importantly do you trust our government to give us the plain truth? Not just our government, any government. Was this always so? I guess if you believe in your history books, you could believe in the facts as they were presented a certain percentage of the time. But obviously that was before the consequence of a promise of “when is a promise not a promise”.

Certainly not when it is the expected but honourable consequence of an unreliable word given. No, to quote a most trusted source a promise is not a promise when it is not a core promise. Conclusion being that a core promise must be something to do with the economic bottom line and procurement of votes.

And, as for the history books who wrote them, probably many a good man and woman. But the questions still arise.

From whose point of view were they written? Is the information slanted in a given direction? Who was the conqueror? Was history ever re-written to reflect the other side? As no doubt we have all heard at some time, statistics could be manipulated to suit the cause in hand, or to interpret the facts to mirror the angle sought. So what type of truth is being reflected to us as we go about our daily lives under the inherited mantle of our forbears. Maybe it isn’t healthy for our psyches to daily bear the brunt, weight and struggle of centuries of living lies. The sins of fathers being visited onto the previous and current generations. The pain of being treated in non consequential manner.

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a. a. gallagher

Thank you for reading & following. I love a jolly good story: I write short stories, enviro. poetry, and kids’ rhymes. Prev. Education includes a. Dip. S.R.M.