The post-truth world in post-Gadhafi Libya

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:41 pm by Morgan Guyton

The post-truth world in post-Gadhafi Libya 2014-07-17T14:41:44-05:00 Morgan Guyton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Whatever else is true about Libya right now, it offers a perfect display of discourse in a post-truth world. At one point in time if you routed your enemy in battle and liberated 99% of the country from his control, then it was safe to say you “won” the war regardless of whether your enemy continued to persist in some miserable bunker for another year or even a decade. This was true as recently as the Iraq war when Saddam grew a long beard and hid in a cave for several months evading capture. “Mission accomplished” fiasco notwithstanding, no one pretended like Saddam was somehow still in power simply because he hadn’t been captured. And yet, it seems to be the case in Libya that as long as Saif Al-Islam Gadhafi’s cell phone doesn’t get cut off, he can call up some imbecile reporter who slavishly posts that Saif is “drinking tea and fighting,” which thus “proves” that the rebels still haven’t overthrown Moammar and his sons.

Isn’t that an amazing image? Drinking tea and fighting? I thought shooting a machine gun usually involved two hands. Does he put the tea in a thermos backpack like the kind that marathon runners use? It’s such a farcical image: drinking tea and fighting. His PR consultants must have told him that he needs to convey simultaneously a sense of strength and relaxed confidence. Maybe he’s using a pistol so he can hold his tea cup while he’s doing it. But wouldn’t he spill at least a little bit if he was really getting into it, dodging bullets, etc? He must have his tea in a Nalgene bottle of some sort.

There’s kind of a parallel between Gadhafi “staying in power” and Sarah Palin’s permanent potential candidacy for president. As long as the media thinks it’s entertaining to keep Gadhafi in power and Palin in the presidential race, they create a “fact” by reporting it as such. Sarah and Saif both live in a post-truth world where facts are not dependent on empirical actuality but are instead created by speech events that are memed, retweeted, viralized, etc. This un-real “reality” is the product of living in a global society connected by the Internet, in which the Internet seems more “real” to us than the flesh and blood world that we physically inhabit.

I can’t fly over to Tripoli tomorrow in a helicopter and study the streets to see how many actually belong to the rebels and how many are still flying the Gadhafi flag. The Internet is my only reality that interfaces with the reality on the ground in Libya. So when Saif claims that the rebels are all “foreign insurgents” who have been “weakened” by the regime loyalist forces, the only way I can dispute this is by finding another equally anonymous Internet voice that offers a conflicting perspective. It’s easy to let your view become the “average” of the accounts you hear from each side since you have no empirical basis for independently confirming “facts.” Thus Saif gets to redefine “reality” in a post-truth world as long as he has a cell-phone, just like politicians get to redefine “reality” whenever they find a meme that sticks regardless of whether it has any basis in the flesh and blood world that we used to call reality.

The degree to which Saif’s account is the “true” account of what’s happening on the ground in Tripoli depends upon which story about the world that I need for Libya to fit into. Do the rebels need to lose the war in Libya so that the war can be a foreign policy failure for Obama? Do the rebels need to win the war in Libya so they can be part of the triumphant story of how the US brought democracy to the Middle East? Do the rebels need to lose the war because they might include “Islamic extremists” in their ranks? Or do they need to win the war because Gadhafi supports terrorism and hates the US? Thus the “truth” that I choose to believe about post(?)-Gadhafi Libya depends upon which larger story I want to believe, just as the “truth” that I choose to believe about “death panels,” tax cuts, or climate change has nothing to do with concrete physical data but only with the story that I want to believe. Such is life in a post-truth world where there are no longer facts, but only opinions. I prefer to believe in truth.

Politics

drinking tea and fighting

Previous Post

August 31, 2011

Sitting with Alice & the Presence of God

Next Post

September 2, 2011 Welcome: It's More Than A Mat

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to Hebrews, who serves as a copy and shadow of what is in heaven?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The prophets The apostles The angels The priests in the earthly sanctuary