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The moment I knew American conservatism had utterly lost its way wasn’t the 2016 election itself, but the defense of Kellyanne Conway‘s “alternative facts” following the inauguration. The evangelical sub-culture in which I was raised proudly declared its commitment to the truth. This was coupled together with a denunciation of philosophy‘s “postmodern thought” and psychology‘s “personal truth.” That’s why it was so jarring when 81% of evangelicals suddenly embraced a dumbed-down form of politicized relativism. It lost its ability to self-correct.
We young evangelicals were taught a “Christian worldview” that contends there are only two options regarding truth: objectivity or subjectivity. Objective Christians believe absolute truth exists and is thus knowable. They hold that through our empirical senses and mental faculties we’re capable of understanding. Meanwhile, subjective secular humanists contend that objective truth is a myth and is thus unknowable. Everything we think we know is merely a culturally conditioned and psychologically deterministic product of our limited senses and perceptions.
There’s an alternative way forward between pure objectivism and sheer subjectivism that doesn’t involve obfuscating to “alternative facts” bullshit. It turns out it’s a small nondualistic world after all. Let us imagine a football game with 100,000 people in attendance and there’s an incredible touchdown pass. Each and every person in the building has a unique perspective on that single event, but that in no way suggests that a particular event–an incredible 50 yard touchdown pass–didn’t actually happen. That’s the perspectivist alternative offered by critical realism.
Truth exists as that which corresponds to reality, but it seems to me two consciously Christian caveats are needed. First, humans are finite and fallen. We lack omniscience and perfection, so we can never grasp truth fully. As N.T. Wright put it, “The reward for getting one answer is you get three more questions. That’s why life goes on being exciting.” Second, the universe outside of God is constantly in motion, so the bits of reality that comprise truth (i.e. facts) are always in motion. Together these caveats ground our perspectives in curiosity and humility.
The original beatniks weren’t critical realists. As touched upon prior, they focused on narrative fiction and empathetic poetry rather than arguing for propositional truth claims in nonfiction. Moreover, they probably leaned more toward a postmodern post-structuralism. Yet I suspect they would’ve seen Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts” as duplicitous doublespeak requiring a societal epistemological pivot back towards at least a basic journalistic understanding of truth. Perhaps that would’ve inspired more receptivity of critical realism’s perspectivist schema.
