As the current tension in the culture rises, the slacks stretch even tighter, it’s no easy task counting the entire cost of where we are today. Obviously sometime in the future, a larger perspective will emerge. Until then, we can at least observe some few obvious casualties in our current culture war.

The likely biggest casualty in this rising tension, is becoming as clear as it is unfortunate. Our concept in the idea of basic truth seems to be eroding, taking our trust in such a thing, with it. It is no surprise that as this causes each man to turn to his own way, the culture is now shifting to very separate factions at war with each other.

Take the news for instance. Very serious-minded people have increasingly made the decision not to even watch the news, because the media has become so corrupt, that basic information in a simple news story has been proven time and time and time again, to be false. An alarming number of them, actually deliberate. The things they bother to report are neither true, nor useful. And when a truth goes against their desired narrative, they will suppress it. At the moment, they sit at a loss, because they seriously don’t know what to do.

The news media is part of the elite class, and as part of the elite class, it has become outrageously bloated, haughty, and mendacious, that even it’s purpose practically non-existent. Very reasonable arguments can now be made, as to why it is not currently needed as an institution.

In any relationship, when two people don’t trust each other, it matters less and less what they say to each other, whether bitter or sweet. The same also goes for dual factions of a society, and this society is becoming more and more like two people in a relationship who don’t talk to each other.

Why is this dangerous? Why is the divide between a highly learned strata of society, and the commoner so precarious to everyone’s way of life?

It is of course, understandable that there is a credibility that comes with expertise in a given field. This expertise does have an inherent authority one cannot deny. But there is an “eyes on the ground” perspective that comes from the average human in any situation, making him or her invaluable. In fact, the best experts are good at what they do, because they factor this understanding into the things they study, and the things they master.

I realized this recently, as I was listening to my wife during a conversation on homeschooling. Her views on the issue were intriguing enough that I made a passing reference to the possibility that she could write on it in some future capacity, even maybe here at The City Gate.

That she dismissed the idea right away, wasn’t surprising. She had never expressed any drive to being a writer. It wasn’t even surprising that she did so because she was “not an expert” on the matter. I hear people talk like this all the time. But it was a good opportunity for me to reiterate both to myself (because sometimes I need it), and to her that expertise was neither the requirement to voice an opinion, or the entire point of The City Gate.

In a healthy society, even given the natural divides that do exist within it, an adherence to the truth should still be paramount to all who live in it. To whatever extent the expert is useful, he must only be useful to that end. The same goes to everyone else.

When this cultural agreement is corrupted, chaos reigns. The experts become a glory-seeking faction. A faction too enamored with it’s own sense of self-importance. The masses, seeing this as a form of tyranny, rebel by clinging to alternative forms of existence, even the forms that would have been left to the fringe.

It’s not an accident that the rise of a bloated elite class has coincided with a surge in fringe conspiracy theory peddlers. When a mainstream institution has eroded it’s credibility, it has no choice but to compete with the dregs for people’s attention.

The elites/masses rift is a subject in and of itself, and will likely be explored in more detail in future posts on this site, but for now, it’s important to solidify some basics.

The search for truth is paramount. The search for expertise is not. Because of this, there is no need to think of expertise and common sense as necessarily opposed to each other. Even as you reject the tyranny of the elite class, or the anarchy of the masses. The search for truth almost always involves the symbiotic relationship in which both approaches to knowledge can complement each other.

Take homeschooling for instance. Of course I would like to hear from education experts on the statistical and aggregate effects of that phenomenon. I would like to feature them on this outlet. To not do so, would leave me ridiculously dependent on the anecdotal point of view of certain individuals, without a sense of comparing the part with the whole.

With that said, of course the average parent who has to spend their day within that system has an invaluable perspective that needs to be shared. Not as a replacement to the expert, but as a complement to him. Believe it or not, sometimes, that ordinary perspective, of an ordinary person, doing something ordinary, for whatever cause, needs to be seen or heard by a lot of people. It attaches a theoretical idea of reality, to it’s tangible application, not to mention its effect on the human element.

The only caveat is that however you move forward in applying yourself to this goal, be honest about who and where you are in things. Admit your bias, and your limitations. Refer to the most credible source of whatever idea you promulgate, and learn when you can.

Seek the truth wherever it is. Recognize it wherever it is found. Whether you’re qualified to either seek it, or tell it, is unimportant.