We hear that we are living in a post-truth society. Truth itself, they tell us, has be-come dispensable; it’s beside the point. The point being perception.

Spin hard enough or just smart enough, and fact gets distorted, devoured voraciously by preconceived ideas and by innate bias; truth as we perceive it is thwarted, ever so subtly, as much by our own doubts, insecurity and predispositions, as by the pervasive media used to play up to them.

So in a world which is ubiquitously connected, a world so information-rich, can it be true that humanity cares for the truth less? I think not.

Perhaps humanity is being driven to that point of scepticism and disillusionment where we are losing our ability to decipher fact from fabrication, often discounting the truth simply because we assume that there must be a shade of grey in everything; things are no longer black or white, true or false. People are no longer saints or sinners; we now assume everyone sins at times. Very few paragons to look up to, no more bastions of the truth to guide us.

As we become more ‘world-aware’, or is it ‘world-confounded’, things always seem to be muddled up somewhat. With so much to decipher, so much to cope with, so little time to think in any depth, many of us tend to form opinion on a knee-jerk, conjuring snippets of information picked up here and there in a busy day to create superficial and flawed perspectives of situations or events without any proper reflection on their veracity.

So as much as we may still care for the truth, it is becoming increasingly elusive and our senses are somewhat numbed by the spin and information overload. The truth? Well it’s probably hidden somewhere out there, we simply don’t have the time to get to it anymore, and in any case, who can we believe, or believe in these days?

It’s not as much a post-truth society, as a post-trust society

Perhaps it’s not as much a post-truth society as a post-trust society.

Here is the crux of the matter: how can we restore trust? Not the blind, submissive trust of yore, but, a trust hard-earned and true. While it is necessary to practise a healthy dose of scepticism these days, society cannot afford to become cynical. While scepticism keeps us sober, cynicism creates detachment, erodes hope and dispels faith.

The world is experiencing profound and unprecedented change, and undoubtedly, this will rattle everyone’s cage as the change picks up momentum in the coming decades. Our values, our tolerances, our beliefs will be challenged, again and again. We need credible and consistent reference points to help us navigate as there are some profound choices ahead of us. We simply cannot faff around and shirk our responsibility towards future generations.

If we mindlessly go with the flow and gamble our future on the shifting sands of transient public perception blurred by spin and spite, are we not merely setting the scene for more opportunism, are we not abandoning our ship on a rudderless course at the whim of trend and trickery?

If we do so, don’t we become part of the vicious cycle which undermines reason? Alas, as we abandon reason, don’t we also erode trust? Have we not witnessed enough on the world stage of late of where this can lead us? Nowhere good.

As the stark reality of what’s going on around us continues to thicken, as the magnitude and complexity of the challenges and opportunities ahead become more apparent, our political masters, our institutions, our intellectuals, educators, innovators, entrepreneurs, each and every one of us… we must think straight, we must talk straight, and then we must strive to live the talk.

We rely on one another to see through deception, to keep innate bias in check, to listen objectively and be open to new perspectives, to formulate reasoned opinions, to act consistently, to be true to our respective values. Surely we are not content participating in a parody of democracy, where whoever manipulates most, spins smarter, prevails.

Through our clarity of thought, in the consistency of our action, we will undoubtedly restore trust.

And truth? If we do not abandon reason, truth will always surface in the end.

Juanito Camilleri is the former rector, and currently a professor at the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation, at the University of Malta.