Are you a friend or an enemy of truth?

If you are willing to recognize it, you may actually know many persons who are friends of truth.
Over the last week or two, I have been enjoying the intellectual generosity of Harry and Rose, two close friends who introduced me to the truth according to Eduardo Galeano, a very entertaining writer, a hard-hitting political historian and commentator who died in 2015.
By giving me a Christmas gift of this Uruguayan’s book Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History, Harry and Rose shared with me a source of laughter and tears, the story of human behavior and misbehavior here on planet Earth.
Like Galeano, I do not try to define truth in strict terms but rather to describe it in a number of ways. Truth is more than the so-called facts, it is also an attitude: the willingness to face up to the good and the bad. So the friends of the truth are those who are willing to stand up for truth and justice. Your truthfulness is therefore your ability to live and behave in accordance with your core beliefs and values.
Believe it or not, truth has lots of friends. It is unfortunate that most of them are not in positions of political or economic influence. In fact, their limited influence, in government, business, the media and so many areas in which public policy and public information are supposed to work together for the common good, is both embarrassing and disheartening.
But why is that so? Why are the enemies of truth more powerful and influential than its friends?
I will only provide two reasons for that shameful reality.
The first reason is the obvious one: human greed for material wealth, political power and social prominence. Let me give an example of the “allegedly” more powerful influence of the enemies of truth and justice.
There has been a rumor that there is a long-standing commitment by Ontario governments to ensuring the prevalence of more reasonable rates for motor vehicle insurance. According to the rumor, that commitment – to work for the reduction of rates which have been demonstrated to be excessively high – has never been translated into action because most governments, political parties and politicians are allegedly unwilling to go against the vested interests of the owners and managers of the insurance companies.
Apparently, the financial support of the insurance industry takes priority over the alleged exploitation of our province’s motorists. The veracity of these allegations has, of course, never been proven in a court of law.
On the other hand, the second reason is one in which sometimes we all play a part in betraying truth and justice: our society’s “relative” disinterest and indifference towards the needs and interests of others, particularly the poor and those who are struggling to make ends meet.
It is one thing for us to pay inadequate attention to the needs of these vulnerable groups in our midst. It is quite another to “accept” that their suffering is the unavoidable consequence of the “free market” and development of a “competitive economy”.
The attitude in that last sentence is criminal. It treats the poor and struggling segments of our society as the necessary and unavoidable collateral damage that is the price of “progress”.
We become enemies of the truth when we deny that the purpose of society is to provide as equitably as possible for the needs of all, not just those who succeed in mastering the system.
So, tell me: are you a friend or an enemy of truth?