[Opinion] The Value of the Truth

An anarchist steals a cholera germ that can propagate without limit, and spreads it in a reservoir used for London’s drinking water. Actually, what he stole was a truth serum medicine under development by a scientist. Afterwards, uncontrollable situations happen. Streets and pubs in London are full of husbands who confessed past wrongs and truths such as, “You are ugly and ignorant, it was a lie that I said I loved you,” and were driven out of their homes as a result. Police stations are scenes of confusion and disorder due to citizens who want to confess their sins and give themselves up. Diplomatic relations with France are in danger because the prime minister confessed that “France cannot be called a nation. It is just a group of useless rabble. The only thing France can be proud of is 240 kinds of cheese,” when the French foreign minister visited.

Of course, this story is fiction. It is a story in a chapter titled “The Stolen Bacillus” in “The Infinite Worlds of H G Wells,” a moving picture by Hallmark. “Truth” is a good concept. But this episode makes a caricature of the value the “revealed truth” has. Those who confess the truth might be more naïve and weaker than those who pretend not to know all the way through. In the real world, those kinds of people are much likely to be losers.

A writer as well as a journalist, Graham Greene, who mostly depicted human immorality in novels such as “The Third Man” (1949) and “The Quiet American” (1955) also questions the existence and role of the truth. He speaks through the tongue of a depraved policeman, saying, “Truth has never had practical value for human existence. It is just a symbol that mathematicians or philosophers should pursue. In human relationships, kindness and lies have been as valuable as 1,000 truths.”

President Roh Moo-hyun said he felt pricked hearing someone says that truth surpasses national interests,” in a commemoration meeting of the Journalists Association of Korea last week. Today’s political world is busy inquiring into past truths. No truth can attract people’s interests if it is not inquired. There is a “purpose” in insisting on inquiring into the truth whether it is good or not. Are the president and political circles’ real intentions of “inquiring into the truth” true, then?

Kim Young-bong, guest editorial writer and a professor on Economics, Chung-Ang Univ.

kimyb@cau.ac.kr