The Courtroom Oath
January 8, 2016 at 9:45 pm Leave a comment
I have sworn more than once to tell “the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth…” Gaud, Gode, Goode and a host of others were to assort me as I recall.
My true reply is as follows.
“Our personal perspective is formed through values and concepts. This command [to tell the TRUTH] assumes all of them can be expressed in terms of words, and that simply isn’t so. You know it isn’t; you’ve known it since you were a child, before you knew words.
“I cannot begin to approach saying what I perceive and feel each moment, nor can you. To pretend to do so is itself a lie, and most of all to oneself–and leads only to being shackled by illusions.
“Nor can I set bounds around it. I believe everything and nothing at all; I was trained to do so. And belief must I think be the first defining characteristic of that very complex thing you would term simply truth.
“Do not at least as yet charge me with contempt, Your Honor. I have spent my entire life, you see, in search of just that: Truth.
“And the closest I can come is…silence.‟
Entry filed under: On Truth, social psychology, truth oath. Tags: silence, truth, Words.
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