You Can’t Handle The Truth

The Truth Will Set You Free

If the truth will set you free, but at the same time, you can’t handle the truth, then how can anyone ever become free?  At what point can someone handle the truth, and who decides when that is?

Now let’s agree that first and foremost that both of these sayings are “opinions”.  If you tell me I can’t handle the truth, it is your opinion. You can not prove that I can or can not handle that truth without first telling me that truth.

Most, if not all of us have been hearing both of these sayings for as long as we have been alive. And most have never taken the time to think about what they really mean. Both seem simple enough to understand, and most of us probably do understand them in there simplistic meanings.

Before we get any further into this, let’s agree on what the word “Truth” means.  Truth put as simple as possible is that; which is correct, and/or factual, and/or provable.

Why is this important?

Once we understand that they are “opinions” first, we can begin the process of questioning every time we hear them used.  More importantly we can ask them to prove their assertion that we can not handle the truth; by telling us the “Truth”, or that, the, truth will set us free; by sharing that “truth” which will set us free.

Is it as simple as that? Yes and no. If you understand this, then you understand that one persons truth may not be another persons truth One example that proves this would be a person who is color blind, (lets say they can not see the color Red), if there is no such color for them, then their truth is different than a non color blind person.  Both are the truth for how each see the color.

Now, for the tricky part of this. Remember what we agreed truth means. Well here we have two truths.  Both are correct, factual, and provable. Both are right in what they see.  Neither is more true than the other.  At this point we should be able to agree that one persons truth nay not be another persons truth.

Lets take another step into this, and shake things up a little.  We place two people in a room, (one color blind), and have them agree on what colors are being shown to them and can not come out until finishing the task/job.  They are in agreement until Red comes up. What happens now?

Here are the most probable outcomes.                                                                                             1. The argue relentlessly and non stop, because neither can handle the truth of the other, and remain a captive in the room                                                                                                       2.  They argue for a while and then just stop communicating altogether, and remain a captive of the room.                                                                                                                               3.  They argue for a while and finally reach a compromise, name the color,  and that sets them free.

Notice in #3 it did not say they named the color correctly. So, for the sake of argument let’s point out that they finally realized that they were not told that the colors had to be correct, they just had to agree on the color.  That realization is the truth that set them free.

Yes, real life is more complicated than this simplistic scenario. It’s meant to be simplistic , because sometimes the best way to open someones eye’s is to keep things as simple as possible.  The whole hope of this article is that it has opened your eyes a little more.  And that from this point forward every time you hear something that indicates you can’t handle the truth, or that it will set you free; you question and or even demand that that truth be shared with you to prove it correct or incorrect.