We have access today to more information from more parts of the globe than we have had at any previous point in human history, and we spend hours every day perusing it; but for all that, our ability to meaningfully absorb and verify what we take in seems — if anything — to have diminished. And yet, somehow, it seems the more that we lose contact with our ability to know what’s real, the more intractable we grow in our opinions, and the more we cling to the spurious conviction that we understand the complex world we live in.
Aletheia as "Truth" does not refer to a collection of objective facts.
As mentioned earlier, aletheia does not denote the truth about an objective, external reality.
To speak aletheia successfully is to possess the ability to recount that witnessed reality with such fullness and clarity that the listener can perceive it - secondhand - with as much detail and accuracy as if they had been there, themselves, in the first place.
Embracing the notion of aletheia does not necessitate a nihilistic view of knowledge: it does not require us to conclude that we cannot possibly know anything and to give up on the pursuit of truth entirely.
Aletheia is a sort of "Analog" approach - a vinyl record or 8-track, if you will - to seeking truth, as opposed to a CD or digital recording represented only by a series of ones and zeroes.
The soul of the hero or initiate is wary of such traps and he finds his way through the deceptions of the underworld to the true spring by successfully speaking aletheia - that is, by retaining enough of a sense of rooted awareness to chart his precise position and trajectory on the metaphorical map of reality, and his relationship to the vast and complex world beyond himself.
A Muse of Mount Helicon beating on a frame drum in an attempt to awaken Aletheia - pictured as a pearl of wisdom - where she sleeps, at a depth of 12,500 feet below sea level, in the ruins of the Grand Staircase of the RMS Titanic.
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