Truth is the truth is the consensus of current belief.

I think...

.....therefore I am.

Descartes. One of the most important philosophical conclusions.

Well I have been doing a LOT of thinking recently. Indeed its probably one of the things I do well.

I am always thinking. Probably too much and not always about intelligent stuff either.

Like on the way home I was thinking about the merits of a McD cheeseburger meal. I resisted only because the nearest McD on my journey is at the frenetic Waterloo station and queuing for a McD in the hustle and bustle with my ears being pounded by train announcements was as appealing as putting on a wetsuit filled with blubber.

Generally I whizz through Waterloo quicker than Fernando Alonso on crack. If he took crack that is!

Anyway I also thought about various strands I had been taught/worked on/musings and frankly I have to agree with Stephen Fry who has released a new book based on his show QI called General Ignorance. Basically its starting point is that we know nothing. And it would be better to admit we know nothing.

Then damn coincidence reared itself again and Jeremy Clarkson mentions a similar vein of thought in one of his books based on his newspaper articles. The more we're told the less we know-in essence if you know little about a topic-for example muclear weapons its very easy to paint a black and white picture of the world-our weapons good North Korea's bad.

When really all nuclear weapons are bad but its a Pandora's box thats impossible to close. Thus its hard to know what to do to control the situation. If it is controllable that is. What could be called the spiral effect may kick in and blow down the house of cards us human piggies live in. North Korea now has a bomb, possibly it will or have detonated a second. Time believes Korea will be the test case for Iran to see how tough the Security Council is or can be. Then if Iran does manage to get a bomb a whole host of countries from Turkey to Egypt will start clamouring to join the club. So what then? Do we say no? Which is hypocritical really as we have nuclear weapons why can Turkey not? They are meant to be almost responsible enough for EU membership but fears over human rights remain, despite being an ally in the "war on terror". Or indeed Egypt? Or say yes in which case why not hand them out like christmas presents? But this increases the chance of some mad lunatic one day setting off the biggest firework display to bring down our final curtain. So we return to the beginning. Perhaps we should get rid of all nuclear weapons.......but the genie is out of the bottle, the knowledge is there and if we dont have them someone else may break ranks and start the whole race up again so does anybody have an answer? Not so easy is it.

Anyway Descartes also suggested the same thing with his think therefore I exist idea as he believed memory was unreliable so only a person's present thoughts were the truth at any one time.
Socrates could also be looked at here with his Method. This he used to deflate an opinionated person and their argument if it lacked logical thought behind it, again proving that convictions are not necessarily built on rock but the changing sands of time.

Like Pluto. Planet? Nope not anymore but a textbook from the eighties will proudly display this as fact. Once people KNEW without a doubt Earth was the centre of the universe and that the Earth was flat. Who knows what we will "know" in the future.

Therefore truth is relative. The sooner we learn this and accept it the sooner we can move on from dogma and fundamentalism. We can try and remake a freer society where, what is commonly attributed to Voltaire, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it", is the attitude of the day.

The truth is like the sun in Plato's story, we can be blinded by it and miss the shadows all around us.