Doubletruths

You don't have to be wrong if someone else is right. Two contradictory things can be true at the same time.

Walking along a beach, I spied a ferris wheel. A lone security guard stood in the moonlight, guarding the closed ride. Curious, I walked closer. Our paths crossed. A friendly hello was in order!

"G'day mate, how's your evening?"

"Just had to tell some teenagers off. Can you believe this? They tried to climb the ferris wheel, what a bunch of reckless idiots!"

"Ah, don't worry about them, they're just being young, but at the same time, yes they're reckless."

"No, they're just reckless idiots!"

"Yes, but they're also young."

The kids would've been thrillseeking - climbing a seemingly-abandoned ferris wheel for a sweet view of the neighbourhood, taking some pics, and not getting in trouble, who wouldn't!

The security guard saw danger: reckless teens could've hurt themselves!

Both the teens and the guard were right, it was dangerous and it was thrilling! Climbing a closed ferris wheel was both a good idea and a bad idea. It is just a matter of perspective. The guard's realisation was - he wasn't wrong in seeing the danger, and neither were those teenagers.

Deeply embedded in Western culture is the idea of a universal truth: that there exists a single, unchanging interpretation of every "thing", that proving me "right" automatically proves everyone with a different perspective "wrong".

It doesn't work that way, and we need to be talking more about this.

Consider physics: light is both a particle and a wave; things can be in multiple states at once; observed physics differs when observed at different levels. Sometimes quantum physics dominates and sometimes we rely on classical, non-quantum, Newtonian physics. Sometimes it's a mix.

What about the debate on climate change. We're destroying Earth, right? Pumping pollution into our environment. Pushing plastic into oceans. Straining the complex systems that sustain us and the ecosystems around us. There's no coming back from K degrees of warming! Why won't you listen to us?!

On a certain time scale it's true. On the other hand, Earth eventually will regenerate even if we ruin it. It's done it before and it will do it again. It'll look different without us of course. Smaller ecosystems have shown that they regenerate - during Covid, the Ganges water became drinkable, rare pink dolphins returned to the waters of Hong Kong & Macau, and marine life (partially) retook the canals of Venice. Which implies we both shouldn't - and can't - destroy our planet.

Other counter-arguments to climate change posit that our climate moves in cycles. and this is a long-term heating cycle. To dismiss this ignores a possible truth, alienating everyone we need to bring on side to stop doing stuff we know damage the climate in our lifetimes.

Of course we shouldn’t destroy our environment; but absolutism leaves no room for nuance and makes the argument unconvincing. Like the security guard at the ferris wheel who only saw danger, current climate change discussions leave no room for multiple truths.

This has broad implications in so many things humans do: politics, court cases, religion, and war. People vehemently defend points of view that are conflicting and even contradictory, and some suffer for those views. How much better would life be - and how much could we work together to solve - if we let multiple people be right - even about conflicting things?

But what about debate! We need to seek truth so we can move forward.

Debate is a tool to be applied when appropriate. For things where a single truth can be found, let's argue. But if debate isn't going anywhere, let's accept.

Next time you find yourself convinced someone is obviously wrong, stop for a moment. Consider why they hold their beliefs, what contributes to their reality, ask if there's a unifying principle - such as them being right on a different timescale.

If no harmonisation exists, consider and open yourself to the possibility that you are both right - within your own individual contexts.

We live in a beautiful, endlessly fascinating universe.