THE TRUTH CARTEL IS FALLING DOWN: WHAT TO DO?

PLENARY SPEECH

Venue: Higher Institute for Applied Studies in Humanities of Tunis, Tunisia

Occasion: 2^nd International Conference on Truth and (Mis)Information

Language: English

Date: 04/12/2019

Length: 0:45. Size:

Media Type: mp4 (please scroll down below the summary to view)

Summary: How knowledge is constructed and whose truth is received have always constituted the focus of human endeavor in the fields of social sciences as elsewhere. However, the proliferation of knowledge-making paradigms, now accelerated by ease of publication and dissemination on cyberspace, has yielded a state of extreme relativization and erosion of what was traditionally canonized as truth and knowledge. The current landscape amounts to a collapse of the knowledge cartel and calls for an examination of the status quo, in order to theorize it and to delineate the lines of corrective or preemptive action. This presentation starts off by identifying and explaining the traditional rivalries between two major cannons of knowledge production, namely the scientific and interpretive paradigms. The next step will be the description and analysis of the effects of the technologically-mediated, web-based, social-media paradigm on the domain of knowledge construction. Preliminary analysis reveals a host of gains emanating from this paradigm shift, with attributes of democratization of de-commodification of knowledge assets, and an evening of the playing field allowing more users to contribute their versions of reality. A more sinister take on this shift will be described as one leading the academy, society, and the world into a state of chaos obtaining from lack of distinction between what truth and knowledge are, and what they are not. The final leg of the presentation suggests the lines of action which can be initiated by individuals and institutions to offset the effects of the coming destabilization and loss of meaning.  

Keywords: Knowledge, Truth, Post-Truth, paradigm shift, social media

ON SISYPHUS'S ROCK

Whoever said
One should envision
Sisyphus merry
Rolling the rock
Back to the top
Of the Rockies
Week in week out
Can go
Eat schist.

Zenith Is

No bleach of whatever make

Will make the Zenith fizzle into decay

Now that the day is nearly done

And the figures of the evening

Are seeping into the night coming.

Tomorrow at dawn,

The new day will stand

In no pump and circumstance

And shed away yesterday’s fluff

--Small talk of food and perfume

Fashion and fret and whatever else--

Over what was coughed out

Or implied

On the way up the lift

To whatever floor

And departure through the backdoor.

As always though,

The centerpiece

Will remain

What it is.

To William Carlos Williams

I ate them

The apples which I had put away

In my travel bag

The night before.

Soothe to say

Both were sweet

Though one sweeter than the other

The other still sweet

With an aftertaste of je ne sais quoi

That lingers

And gnaws into my taste buds

Long after the journey is done. 

Ali H. Raddaoui

02/16/2019

Recollections

On Grand Street of Montenegro Town

Evergreens come and go

After a fashion of alignment

Calculated from before inception time.

They slip into the rear view mirror

And out into oblivion.

On Grand Street of Montenegro Town

This olive tree stands tall

Her foliage slanted

Toward the end point of the horizon.

On the ground, underneath

The breeze jazzes with the bushes

And buzzes with the bees

And pats the wings of humming birds.

Underneath the trunk

Her roots dig into the ground

Sink toward the four corners

And seep into this Midwestern soil

As the branches up above

Wave good bye to the passerby.

I acknowledge the foliage

And wave back

Not knowing whether

I will wind back there

In this life or another.

Ali H. Raddaoui

02/16/2019

Decrescendo

And so it was,

After light years of chaos

And cacophonous discourse

From the havoc of Hulago

To the handover of Gibraltar

Fireballs engulfed

The sullen sky

From the East the sun rose

And from Mount Sinai light shone

The Great Sahara glittered

In golden glows

And as never before

It grew roses

So gorgeous

The fauna and flora from

Around the Rhine

And the Amazon

Could hardly

Trust their inward eye

And at a moment’s notice

Darkness, anew, all-round

The fire dies down –

And consumes itself

From inside and out.

Ali H. Raddaoui

Voeux équinoxiaux

Au Mont de Gatran,
L’équinoxe de l’automne
Cette princesse des saisons
Écarte la poussière estivale
S’attable sur la cime,
Déguste raisins et agrumes
Regarde les paysans
Éparpiller leurs semences
Prend note des feuilles jaunies
Murmurant leurs adieux
Aux branches des amandiers
Et des agneaux trottants
Les uns derrière les autres
Dans un acte du bout des temps.
Il lui faut un bon laps de temps
Pour muter en son semblable, son frère
L’équinoxe du printemps
Maintenant perché non loin

Sur Djebel Orbata…
Comme des lignes parallèles
Ces deux ne se rencontrent guère
Mais comme par hasard,
deviennent l’un l’autre
Sans le vouloir, sans le savoir,

Sans même le prévoir,

Sans mot dit
Et sans suivi.

Ali H. Raddaoui