• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Prawda w mediach
  • Contributor: Zanussi, Krzysztof
  • Published: Uniwersytet Lodzki (University of Lodz), 2008
  • Published in: Annales. Etyka w Życiu Gospodarczym, 11 (2008) 2, Seite 191-193
  • Language: Without Specification
  • DOI: 10.18778/1899-2226.11.2.19
  • ISSN: 1899-2226; 2353-4869
  • Keywords: General Medicine
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: It used to be that if some message came from an oral source, its weight depended on reliability ofthe one who had transmitted it and on the one who had heard it. If, on the other hand, something wasprinted it intrinsically became credible. Democratization of access to print and similar democratizationof media, apart from its undoubtedly positive side, brings also a negative novum – it encourageseveryone to speak freely.It is impossible to talk about truth in media, or truth in any other sense, and not relate tothe fashionable nowadays in the humanities the vanquisher of Marxism – called postmodernism.This very movement in its popular form sows the seeds of fear of all who proclaim the existence ofobjective truth or, what is worse, absolute truth. They caution that the supporters of this truth willintroduce it by force, so we are in danger of facing totalitarianism, fundamentalism and darkdictatorship. It is uncertainty that drives people to violence. Those who have something to hold on to aremore unaffected by despair. The fanatics are often recruited from those who are adrift. Less often fromthose with a questing mind. But in order to seek one needs to believe that truth exists. Even if it werealways incomplete and imperfect in the form in which we are able to assimilate it.To the charges that every certainty leads to violence, I reply that most frequently it isthe opposite. It is fear and feeling adrift that drive people to the false certainty. Whoever believes thattruth exists will easier accept that he will never grasp it.In the very important debate that was conducted some years ago, the fear of fundamentalism wasjuxtaposed with the fear of nihilism. I see the latter as a greater threat.
  • Access State: Open Access