It’s always fascinating how most things in life always come down to truths and facts. One might think that truths and facts are two similar things, but very quickly, you’d learn that they’re not always the same thing. Facts can only be true when you can prove them. Other than that, you’re simply working with theories and assumptions. However, truth plays a different ball game entirely. You don’t need proof to tell the truth. You just say it as it is.
But sadly, for many people today, they confuse facts for truth. They claim they want the truth, but what they really want is proof of it; which is indeed facts. Do you love me? Prove it. Are you intelligent? Show it! Can you drive? Let’s see it! That’s how it works, we simply want to see, we just can’t take their word for it.
But then, I understand why. When you can see the workings and evidence of truth, it’s easier to be more trusting. Yeah, I know that proof can be fabricated, but that doesn’t mean that truth can also be schemed. And thus, facts will always hold more weight in serious settings than the truth ever will. People will believe you more easily if you have something to back up your claim. Don’t just tell me you’re a doctor, either show me proof you studied in a medical school or have worked in the medical field. Your word is not enough to convince me.
And it’s for this reason that the courts operate as they do. There’s a reason you’re advised not to speak in a law court without your lawyer’s permission. You might know the truth, but in the end, it’s not really the truth that sets you free, it’s what your lawyer can prove. Yeah, in a sane court, you’re innocent until proven guilty. It’s up to the prosecutors to find proof of the crime that you committed. Just as it’s up to the defense to find proof of the crime not being committed by you.
That’s why even if a crime is committed in a public place, right in the presence of police officers, when it gets to court, they’d still ask, “How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty?” and it’s up to you to decide if you want to plead guilty. If you plead not guilty, even though everyone and their grandma saw you commit it, the prosecutors would have to find irrefutable evidence of the crime. That’s where CCTV footage will come in, that’s how we get eye witness accounts. Facts and proofs of your involvement.
That way, when you tell the truth, there will be hard evidence to either confirm or refute it. The law doesn’t do “he’s an honest man, his father was the priest who never told a lie. I don’t believe he committed that crime.” As long as the law is concerned, everyone is fair game. If you’re suspected of a crime, you’ll follow the due process. And that way, lawyers are able to work the system to the best of their advantage.
And this is why some people will commit heinous crimes and then pretend that they were insane just to get a lighter sentence. Some will do horrible things and say it’s because of the kind of childhood they had and the trauma they still live through. These are things that affect judgments and the perception of truth. And slowly, it shifts everything and tips the balance. And then you realize that, indeed, when it comes to legal and corporate spaces, truth is not always what’s needed. Facts! Cold, hard facts! They are the things that can’t lie because they are real, can be touched, and seen with the eyes.
Anybody with facts and proofs will outperform a person with truth any day and any time. That’s just the way of the world. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be truthful, we still need to. After all, if a man doesn’t have honesty as a character trait, what then could he possibly have?
