> as one of my favourite quotes (albeit that it's now a bit overused), from Miyamoto Musashi, puts it: “Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie.”
From https://www.way-of-the-samurai.com/miyamoto-musashi-quotes.h... :
> Musashi did not say this. This comes from a less than accurate “interpretation” of Musashi’s life and work by D. E. Tarver who repeats several fictions and myths about Musashi (hiding under bodies for 3 days at the battle of Sekigahara etc). He includes this line, “Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie” in the final paragraph of the Fire Scroll introduction. No such Miyamoto Musashi quotes appear in the Japanese, nor in any of the credible English translations.
Thanks: that's interesting to know.
However, I don't know that it erodes the value of the quote which, taken in isolation, rings true. Even, of all things, a Batman movie[0], and Battlestar Galactica[1] (!) have managed to drop some remarkably profound truths on occasion which has made me relatively unfussy about where one can find truth.
At the same time I do like to give due credit so I'll be sure to reference the correct source in future. Thank you, once again.
[0] "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - seen this one play out first hand multiple times in corporate life, specifically in leadership.
[1] "You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you've created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore." - take heed, Mark Zuckerberg.
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This is a wildly antagonistic take.
It's apparent that the meaning of the quote is true to the parent commenter, regardless of whether or not the attribution is accurate.
The attribution being inaccurate does not rob the quote of it's meaning.
> I could have said the same thing.
But you didn't, and would never have, until you saw the quote for yourself. To claim otherwise is to lie, which you seem pretty passionately opposed to doing. Should I demand an apology from you, now?
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Yeah, all right, calm down Satan.
You’re probably going to get the moral and societal collapse you yearn for without the need for all this shouting.
No, what you said is what's called "pseudo-profound bullshit". Sounds deep; has no actual meaning--nor any specific relationship with truth at all.
Yup, these things are all a bit obvious, ofc the truth "is what it is", not very sure why that sentence is so special and probably why it had to be wrongly assigned to an old hero rather than to the random guy who actually produced it :D
What you're saying is that you're not fighting for the truth, but just for a better lie.
While I agree with the basis of your argument, I don't think anyone wants to agree with it.
Most people like to believe that they strive for getting as close to the truth as they possibly can.
To the practical subject at hand, I would argue that means that the attribution to Musashi is the actual lie, not the saying itself, although any saying regarding the qualities of truth may be called a lie.
For example, I call your statement that truth is fragile, unreachable, & invisible into question.
If the truth is indeed unreachable & invisible, then how could you possibly know if it is fragile?
It is fragile because it does not matter - a better lie will obfuscate it quickly.
Let's imagine a simple truth: vaccines are efficient, work well, are tested seriously, produced immense good for humanity for at least a hundred years. Well just find 3 random kids who got autism randomly after taking one and you have entire slices of the population rushing to the lie like flies to a turd, that vaccines are more harm than good. You can brandish the truth a million times, the lie is better.
Truth is fragile, people are seduced by lies, because lies are crafted, they're targeted, they're intelligently designed. They give you what you want, that God decides our fate in this particular case, and that medicine is evil for trying to change it (or whatever is the deeper reason antivax are so desperate for these lies, I really don't get it, I'm more attracted to pro-medicine arguments, even if they are lies themselves maybe). The truth is dumb, simple, inelegant, uninteresting and, quite powerless: we often don't even want to hear about it.
You need countless proofs to even observe the truth. You need nothing to observe a lie, you can fabricate all the proofs you want.
Give me a counter example ? I'm so annoyed at people telling me the Americans didn't go to the moon because a flag was waving suspiciously, I don't believe a truth ever took over a lie now.