What if there were no truth?

Truth, after all, is a concept, not a fact. Erase it – and its opposite, falsehood. Hereafter there will be no such thing as isn’t. Meditate a moment on the consequences of this subtraction.

I’ve been trying it the last little while. The effect is vertiginous. I wobble, grope for balance. Welcome to Henry’s world – but not quite. Dogs have no experience with epistemology: what is is, has always been and that’s that. Today’s thought experiment postulates a post-truth world. We used to have truth to lean on and now we don’t. What happens next?

This is not science fiction, alas, though it feels like it. For two decades America’s governing party has been advancing in a post-truth direction. In 2004, an aide to then President Bush (widely believed to be Karl Rove) sneered at what he called the “reality-based community.” “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he explained. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” Our present President says whatever comes into his mind without reference to evidence or the slightest compunction about misspeaking. His lickspittles follow suit. They use words as weapons, not responsibilities. The present conflict with Iran is and isn’t a war, which we’ve won and haven’t, over a threat which is one day dire, the next day non-existent, against a foe who’s omnipotent or impotent depending on who’s listening, the time of day, what somebody ate for breakfast. The only truth seems to be bodies coming home in boxes and even those might be fake news if the pesky press would quit poking.

They’re not lying, these paragons insist, because there’s no such thing as truth, therefore no untruth. How can they betray a trust they never pledged to uphold or, if they did so pledge, they were just talking and didn’t mean anything by it. They are performers. All that matters is the effect of their utterances, not their substance. Only idiots, they snort, would think otherwise.

Their irresponsibility has been a tactical advantage, at least in the short term. Truth-tellers are restrained by facts like a chained bear: we can venture only so far without proof. Post-truthers can smash and swagger like King Kong: who’s to stop them?

Problems, though, crop up, as they did for King Kong. No one enjoys being terrorized. Liars become irksome when their lies cause trouble. Please don’t tell me gas at the pump is under three bucks when it’s five and change. Those extra two bucks for non-plutocrats are very real.

Without truth, force is the only basis for order. Right and wrong don’t exist, only opinion. No collaboration, only surrender. Freedom becomes a joke: you are free to do as you’re told: like it or lump it.

Can truth, once erased, be restored? That is the great experiment of our hour. For sure it’s not easy. But maybe the somnolent majority will wake to dissatisfaction with a post-truth world. It’s irksome being lied to, especially when your pocket’s being picked. Those bodies were real people with real relations. Losing isn’t winning.

I predict that America will eject this gang of post-truth thugs. But removal of a tumor does not equal recovery, only a shot at survival. No collaborative government can function without truth. Until we relearn the Pledge of Allegiance – and believe it – only pistols can keep the peace. As a word-worker, my job is to convince my neighbors words are not fluff, but blood. Truth or consequences – and the consequences of a truthless world are grim.