Truth and Marketability

During my relatively short time on this planet I've come to realize truth is a never ending search, this should be obvious to anyone who engages in a life of ideas; but a challenging realization is that truth, down to its the root fibers, is not the most marketable thing in existence and more importantly, one should not expect a mass appeal toward it. You could say this is condition of naiveness or on the opposite end a typical cynical outlook. I would accept this judgment, though for the sake of common sense, look around, how many things which seem rather obvious even to a child, are neglected for the sake of some agenda?

This issue becomes quite apparent when you dive into something your curiosity has pulled you into and you notice that the deeper you go, the more true sources are harder to be found eventually becoming obscure to the point you start questioning how viable something is. It almost seems like this is done on purpose as it's often the case that there are people who benefit from keeping the truth mysterious; so they essentially pull you in half way, enough to satisfy your cravings, yet keep a veil of reality masked and unrevealed in order prevent further questioning. Conspiracy theorists call this "controlled opposition", though I just think these people are too aware of human psychology that they stop half-way as the masses start to become uncomfortable and suspect with the raw truth. If they continued to go the deep end, they would realize much of their audience would disappear costing profits and overall marketability.

As a child, my curiosity drove me to survey the subject of political organization a bit further than what I was conditioned to know from my time in indoctrination camps, so one day I picked up a book by the "godfather" of politics—Machiavelli's, The Prince. Here we have a writer who lays the raw truth of statecraft in straightforward plain speech; it has nothing to do with individual autonomy and freedom, instead it's all about what a prince must do in order to maintain power and keep his constituents in control. I remember not thinking much of it at the time, something akin to a how-to manual for politicians and I had better things to occupy myself then. Reading this book being so young and inexperienced left a mark that became evident only when I took this subject seriously later on.

It would became obvious to me that the game of politics and statecraft was a facade, something tasteless and for people who have nothing better to do with their lives, the whole thing was crooked down to its core. To my surprise I found out that freedom-oriented political theorists, teachers, moralists, and journalists ignore this truth and never get to the bottom of how and why the State is the enemy of society. Freedom isn't the most marketable thing, at least in its true sense, utilitarians and those looking to make a buck are better off stopping half-way before driving people away with the realness. I'm sure other subjects are the same, as a rule of thumb, if a niche is very popularized you can bet truth is being masked to get returns from a broader target audience, just take a look at health and diet.

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