Meeting on partial truths and casting actors based on ethnicity or gender

We had our meeting this evening discussing both partial truths and casting actors based on the two blogs over the summer.

There was a lot of discussion about the word "truth".  However, the main point of the partial truth blog is that whether something is true or not may not ba anywhere as important as whether that truth is relevant to the situation.

It is natural to think that partial truths are used by people who want to manipulate their listeners and "spin" the message a certain way.  However, the person expressing this partial truth may not intend to mislead but simply is not aware that it is not important to the discussion.

So when contemplating a situation, the first action is to determine our purpose, what we want to do.

The next step is to determine what are the most influential factors that may help or impede us towards our goal.

Only after then do we determine which action to take and whether it is "true" that this action will lead to our desired result.

So, in the cell phone charger example mentioned in the blog, we first need to establish that our purpose is to conserve power use while still use energy wisely on things like charging cell phones.

Then the next thing is to determine what are the most influential factors when it comes to saving power use.

We can look at using more efficient refrigerators which uses a lot more energy than cell phones, or minimize electric heat by trapping mores sunlight, using heat pumps instead of electric heat and so on.  All these devises use hundreds or thousands times the power use of cell phones.

Then we can select one with the most energy savings impact, confirm that it is valid and then do that.

The problem with doing something "because every little bit helps" is that we only have limited energy and attention.  Again, baling the sinking Titanic with a teaspoon comes to mind.

The other significant thought illustrated by the cell phone charger example is that we often stop looking when we are convinced that something is "true".  In diverting our attention to verifying the truth of the claim, we have lost our focus on prioritizing our efforts for the most effect.

Very often a discussion of this type can shift from purely technical to political, as in "I am doing my part, how about you?"

While hard work is certainly better than less than hard work in the same direction, it is no indication of achievement if the priority is wrong or the approach is not correct.

So what seems like purely technical issues ultimately involve economics in terms of effort costs to do things and also political in terms of our value system and how we prioritize our "wants".

It is so easy to point to something that is technically true and then feel superior for doing a part for humanity when in actuality it is a waste of effort.

We also spent the first hour discussing whether an art form such as a play should be "authentic" as the playwright intended it or open to interpretation by the director of the play. It is a wide open topic and not anywhere as easily nailed as the partial truth issue.

At least we managed to nail something down.