Truth or Dare and Tithe!

Ahhh, Willamette Valley Vineyards – a wonderful 2004 Riesling I've been saving for, well, drinking at some later date J and today is that later date. Now then, with a couple of glasses of wine the truth of the matter is a little clearer – lucky for me the choice was a Riesling rather than a fruity merlot or some snobbish cabernet variety that's so darn hard to see through…

The truth about what? This comes via Coffeespy's Call to Arms, a multimedia extravaganza concerning the financial straits that the Rightwing Nuthouse is currently navigating. [sigh] If I only had 23 loyal readers to offer! But I do have a baker's dozen… is that thirteen? If I can donate a sawbuck or two so can you [pl.] [evil grin]

Since I've stolen Coffee's poster, because it is kind of cool, I'll also use it to explain the truth about truth. The truth about what? Yup, truth. Pundits like the Coffeespy, Rightwing Nuthouse, and others seem to actually share the knowledge that there is a real, objective, world out there. Moreover, they seem to share the notion that truth can be a property or attribute of a sentence, statement, or proposition. With just a few more steps, we can also reach the idea that there is both good and bad in the world. Dudes and dudettes, Captain America fought against the Nazis because it was the good/right thing to do – the Nazis were an evil regime that was building an evil culture.

While it is "true" that one's enemies rarely view themselves as evil (and sometimes they are not), perception is not the arbiter of truth and good. Comic book writers seem to have a better handle on the common sense notion that there is an objective standard by which we can judge things to be true or false, good or bad. Captain America would not have looked at the cultural practice of "female circumcision" and concluded that it was something to be accepted in the spirit of multiculturalism. For damn sure Wonder Woman would not have! Without an extended discussion of correspondence, coherence, or minimalist theories of truth, the common sense point is easy – one does not "tolerate" vile or evil behavior for the sake of "can't we all just get along?"

Wow, that was a bit much… nahhh. Now go drop your tithe in the Rightwing Nuthouse J