Ive given
up believing anything I here in Africa. Its not really a negative thing, its
just that you cant trust what anyone says to be true in the sense that Im used
to…
In the
places I was raised, truth has a very specific and quite constrained meaning,
and Im of a personality type that strays little from that stringent meaning.
There are of course lots of other people with personality types that allow much
greater freedom in their version of “telling the truth”.
But it’s
a bit different here in Africa it seems. I started out in South Africa where
things are not that different to where Im from, but since then Ive moved
through quite a few more places and things on the truth front have drifted
quite a bit.
The
people that I interact with are varied but most of the time when I want some
food or drink or directions, my questions are simple and there is not much
variation in people’s version of truth… But, when Im asking questions about
culture and history and animal behavior and local tradition etc, Im almost always
interacting with “tourism specific” people like safari guides or hostel owners and
taxi drivers etc… and the “truth” seems to get far more flexible here.
Its not
that Im being deliberately deceived but rather that I think these people want
to tell an engaging story rather than an absolute factual one… I think its
because the information Im asking for is not going to have any direct use that
they feel flexibility in answering… Like, who cares if the mating behavior of a
particular animal is this way or that way; Its just information and Im not
going to “use” it.
And so,
over the past few months Ive heard several versions of the same story applied
to several different plants, and Ive heard three or four different stories
about the same animal etc. When I started to detect the “variability” I
responded by inserting a few “test” type questions (that I had an expected or
known answer for) into my conversations to see what responses Id get… and that
really let me see what was happening J And now Ive reached the point
where I don’t believe a word Im being told no matter how sincere the person talking
to me seems to be… But Im not stressed by it, I just take the attitude that Im
being told an entertaining story which is honestly what the person Im talking
to thinks that I need to hear. This new approach also eliminates lots of
disagreements I no longer feel the need to assert “the truth” when Im told
something that I know just isn’t “true” … I probably should try to retain this
attitude when I get back to my own corner of the world as I think it would
reduce stresses there too and really there usually is no point in challenging
most people over their version of the truth… I rarely manage to change people’s
minds and Ive been known to be wrong myself too of course.
But what
I have stopped doing is repeating the stories as “fact” to others since Im
pretty sure most of it fails my “truth” criteria… In fact I think for the most
part Im better off looking it all up on Wiki than believing what Im told J
So I ride
on… Listening to all the stories J
