Welcome back to the deep dive into Truth-seeking.
As I shared in the previous entries, the classical training model offered some guiding principles that we used to get to the bottom of THE STORY, which I now use as I approach other narratives in political, social, and other arenas.
Let’s continue with…
History Matters: Firsthand Accounts, Evidence, and Record Management
“Well, the earliest copy of this content we have is… in its original language…”
It’s embarrassing to admit that it hadn’t occurred to me that a sacred text (or any text for that matter) could be so dramatically altered from its original form across centuries, or that translation would change the content/meaning so much.
I mean, weren’t those final drafts? Why would they change them? What do you mean books were taken out and…?
Yeah, the conversation about the Council of Nicaea rocked my freaking world.
Talk about destabilizing one’s experience of a STORY.
Who touched that original story, and what were their biases and intentions while they worked on translations and final compilations?
But that was the wrong question…
at least the wrong FIRST question.
The right first question was:
Who first authored it,
and where did they get their information?
Now, I learned to dig for original texts and translations early in my training, but I didn’t FEEL the importance of this idea of Firsthand Account, Evidence, and Record Management until I found myself embroiled in a legal battle twenty years later.
I was disputing the debt, asking for proof that the debt they were demanding was actually my debt to pay and theirs to receive.
So, the only evidence they could offer to prove that the debt was mine to pay and theirs to receive was not the statements they sent me, but:
- their accounting records—to prove they hadn’t sold my debt or received an insurance payout on it, and continued to collect on it anyway
…AND…
- affidavits, signed and notarized by those with firsthand knowledge/access to said accounting records because everything else was considered hearsay by the court
I felt like I was back in school again…
Not only having my world rocked by the heinous realities of the FINANCIAL STORY of our world…
And processing very similar levels of confusion and rage…
But learning how to apply every tool I’d honed back then to this new arena.
And how does this have anything to do with our current political, social, and other arenas?
Well, if there are shenanigans happening in these arenas—and it’s clear that people on all sides are suspicious of what’s happening on the others—then shouldn’t we be asking these types of questions to get to the TRUTH of the matter?
I mean, everyone can’t be completely right at the same time when there are such opposing narratives.
So, your next TRUTH mission (if you choose to accept it rather than accepting the narratives being delivered to you) is to ask the following questions while you’re taking in other people’s and organization’s reports of what they believe are facts:
Is this a Firsthand Account? If not, then where ARE the Witnesses/Sources
with Firsthand Knowledge?
Where is the proof of these statements?
Is there more proof of these statements
that I’ve not considered/ignored?
And, am I seeing the FULL RECORDS —interviews, conversations, etc.— not just content edited and clipped conveniently to make this person’s point?
And be prepared for the possibilities of...
Seeing something you didn’t see before… feeling confused… and maybe even angry…
Because as Dr. Sharon (Ted Lasso) said so perfectly:
"The truth will set you free, but first it’ll piss you off."
p.s.
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