June 7, 2025

The Absence Of Truth

When I was a kid, I read lots of books that blew my mind.

Lord Of The Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Roddenberry’s Star Trek novels, Vonnegut, Asimov, etc.

These books shaped my identity, and my identity continues to shape my behavior to this very day.

But guess what?

None of these books was true.

And yet!

They all influenced me greatly.

Here’s the thing...

Lying to get what you want is different from not relying on truth to get what you want.

For example...

If what you want is to produce a particular action in your audience - say, getting them to drink less alcohol - truth need not be deployed at all in your efforts.

This is not the same thing as saying it’s okay to lie.

I’m merely pointing out that you can influence people’s actions with language that is not based on facts or data or “objective reality”.

How?

You can paint them a picture with words that gets your point across. A story that communicates your idea. An illustration of a potential future, good or bad.

If you’ve ever read a novel that changed your life, you are living proof that this works.

Should we call this influence? Or persuasion? Or manipulation? Or brainwashing? I’ll save the ethics debate for another time...

The point for today is that the absence of truth is not a lie; it’s merely fiction.

And fiction can be an effective way to change behavior.

Yours,

—J

BackRandomNext