Fact or Fiction: The Quest of Truth

In today’s globalized world, the centers of cultural and knowledge production are large and wide. Significantly, knowledge is everywhere and we consume it every second-from social media and electronic media, professors and lectures, Netflix and literature, and beyond. But how many of us try to verify it from any reliable source or more importantly what and where reliable sources of knowledge exist? 

Media is powered by the larger economies who, under the banner of sponsorship, present and misrepresent their ideas and beliefs. Thousands of opinions are shared on social media every day, with no way of knowing who is sitting behind the screens and articulating them. Literature and art, or books in general are also published by few authorized publishers owned by big companies. So what is true knowledge and who is producing knowledge that we are consuming every second like oxygen?

Let's assume, Nothing is permanent. We mould ideologies to meet our needs! 

Knowledge is in the air. We no longer live in a world where we need to travel across seven seas to discover the next episode in the digest. We live in a world where the internet has become one of the biggest platforms for producing, consuming and sharing knowledge, with everything just a google search away. However, you may still be wondering if the internet is the most reliable source of knowledge?. No, it's not reliable as long as the information is not verified.

Here’s a thing; every institute of knowledge and culture production tends to formulate your opinions and mould your narratives as it pleases them by using different techniques like interpellation. Stories and narratives are fabricated and tailored to meet the needs of major political parties and large entrepreneurs.

For the postcolonial world, former colonial powers continue to exert influence by controlling centers of knowledge production, including electronic and print media, text books and literature. Consequently, they keep reinforcing their power in a subtle manner i.e. Neo-colonialism.

Most of the books we are taught from childhood are built around certain narratives that reinforce specific ideologies. Just like we are so accustomed to seeing certain civilizations more ‘civilized' and ‘justified’ in their colonial rules, as though they are responsible for ‘uplifting’ the rest of the world. But this concept of ‘White-man Burden’ only ensures the sustainability of existing hierarchies and power structures.

However, it did not end with decolonization, rather it persisted in more subtle forms in the Neo-colonial era. The post-industrial societies are working towards creation of more public spaces that can be used as areas for knowledge and cultural production. Moreover, they play a big game in the social media matrix, where they strongly work towards their visibility and growth to form people’s opinions and narratives. If you see one side of the story on social media all day long, at the end of the day you might begin to believe at least 5% of it. Social media is another way for colonizers to make you believe in what they believe in and how they perceive life.

It becomes even more clear  once you realize that the stories are subjective and fabricated to suit the needs of particular ideologies and so you no longer believe them. You begin to understand how every news, textbook, piece of literature and art is rooted in the game of representation and misrepresentation to reinforce the power of larger power structures. Therefore, every piece of knowledge shared on social media is not reliable.

In today’s fast paced world, it becomes difficult to verify every single news to check its authenticity. However, we have all the right to choose what we would like to consume ourselves with from social media, electronic and print media. It is up to us to choose whether to trust or doubt the information presented to us. We need to seek sources of universal knowledge or spiritual knowledge that are not shaped by human biases. It is important to break the chains of slavery and question everything we see and hear to find out the truth. It is our duty to think out of the box by truly understanding that nothing is permanent and people mould ideologies to meet their needs!