Truth be Sold — On Truth in the 21st Century and Beyond
How the truth divides us and can reunite us
Anyone who reads the news and follows the discussions on social media can hardly help but conclude that nowadays we only believe in our own truth. The result: a society without solidarity and a declining trust in politics and media. In this book, philosopher Rob Wijnberg brings a powerful corrective to the information war of our time and shows us that truth is still alive and well.
Our collective understanding of truth allows us to label fake news – and to observe that in these times it appears all but meaningless. With an eye to restoring solidarity for the challenges ahead, Wijnberg examines truth’s changing social functions throughout history. To reignite the progressive imagination, he reimagines progress with a concrete future based on solidarity and information, not as a commodity, but a public good.
Wijnberg charts in four stages what he calls the ‘privatization of truth’, or truth’s transformation from a collective good to an individual commodity. The first shift occurred in the transition from premodern times to the Enlightenment, when truth no longer represented transcendent salvation but objective progress. When this progress led to the horrors of the 20th century, however, truth shifted to the realm of personal subjectivity.
Since the 1980s, driven in part by the attention economy and media, truth has been an individual commodity. With it, our ability to reimagine a progressive future has crumbled. If we are to actually make the material transition a sustainable future requires, truth must become a social consensus that reflects how the world can be fundamentally better – beyond ‘de-growth’.
A new book by bestselling author Rob Wijnberg, for the readers of Rutger Bregman
On the collapse of truth as a common good, and a hopeful restoration of progress
Combines an examination of truth’s changing social function throughout history with a concrete vision for the future
A lively and compelling argument against labelling our society as ‘post-truth’
Year of publication
2023
Page count
192
Publisher
De Correspondent
Rights
Channa van Dijk
channa@decorrespondent.nl
Rights sold
Beck (Germany)
Sample translation available
“An enthusiastic plea for believing in progress and a positive view of humanity that can help us through the climate crisis and other troubles.”
Alma's Daughters - Five Lives in the Shadowsd
In this innovative multi-biography, Jutta Chorus follows a fascinating female family line over the course of the past century and a half. The book begins in the nineteenth century with matriarch Alma and then follows the lives of Alma’s daughter Elly, her granddaughters Sylvia and Elly, and her great-granddaughter Lili. A writer, an agricultural scientist, a journalist, a photographer and a filmmaker. Had they been men, the biographer argues, they would have displayed their talents with more bravado and most likely gone down in history.
.jpg&w=828&q=75)
Uprising — The Populist Revolt and Battle for the Soul of the West
In recent years the far-right’s growing mainstream acceptance has come to feel unstoppable. On a platform of identity, family, nationalism and anti-immigration, populist parties have seen electoral wins throughout the West. Underlying their valorisation of what is ‘natural’ and ‘realistic’, however, is a broader counterrevolutionary movement against the left-liberal globalist elite and what is perceived as the undermining of Western identity.
.jpg&w=828&q=75)
When Humans Stray — Seven Animals Bite Back
For 400 years, European seafarers attempted to sail over the top of the globe for a shorter trading route. The famous polar explorer William Barentsz, who lent his name to the Barents Sea, died a hero, after becoming stranded in Novaya Zemlya in northern Russia. Today, however, he would have been able to complete his route in the summer.
Listening Practice
Initially, the emancipating power of internet technology was warmly embraced: the marginalised could finally influence political debate, new voices could shake up the dominant world order. But constant scrolling has led to a ‘dizzying swirl of current events’, overstimulation leads to mental shut down. Can we learn to listen again?
