We live in a post-modern world, where truth, with a certainty of 100% is very hard to establish, if not impossible. In a world of ubiquitous AI, seeing is not believing. We are also in a media context (in the USA and much of the West) where serious questioning of government propaganda is rare, if not absent. This creates an effect where everyone has their version of “truth” in their minds, though the reality may be different and almost opposite of what people believe.
Most journalists have become stenographers who reprint press releases and rely on “X official says” as proof of credibility, as if independent verification and investigation are vestiges of a bygone era.
Source: Wikipedia
With the corporate ownership of media at an all-time high, the control of information and what is considered “true” is becoming very hard to determine. In such a world, how do you arrive at a clearer understanding of the world? Do you “both-side” an argument? While that may be a good starting point, it certainly cannot be the end point. You cannot both-side truth and falsehood.
What is the “Rashomon effect?”
The term “Rashomon effect” comes from a movie Rashomon by Akiro Kurasawa produced in 1948 and is about a “plot device that involves various characters providing subjective, alternative, and contradictory versions of the same incident”. It is considered the greatest film of the 20th century. This term also refers to the unreliability of eyewitness testimony alone and the difficulty in establishing the “truth” in a complicated scenario of conflict. We can see this playing out in multiple scenarios today: during wars, genocides or conflicts that involve groups of people or nations.
Getting over the Rashomon effect: understanding framing and biases
Consider the case of Hollywood and its stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims as being generally violent/ barbaric. In Western media discourses, even in well informed circles, any discussion of the Middle East assumes that “We” the Western countries are somehow more civilized and more cultured and less violent than those Arabs or Muslims. Dr Jack Shaheen’s body of work throws light on this phenomenon of how Hollywood vilifies a people and paints them in a negative light. This framing allows the media and “experts” to practically say the most bizarre things about this group and go unchallenged, because the terms of the debate have been set and most people are not going to challenge those terms.
The “framing” of a particular group or people in a certain light impacts how we understand them. Consider how any conflict playing out today, whether it is the Iran War or the Genocide in Gaza, is framed. And consider how our media is portraying it and with what purposes. While the intent of the portrayal may be hard to glean into, it is obvious from a cursory glance that many (if not all) media outlets that are mainstream and owned by corporations that want to tow the establishment line: frame an issue as being in the interest of national security, national pride or saving Americans lives.
This automatically shuts down debate to a large extent.
According to this logic: Who, in their right mind would want to be seen as endangering fellow Americans or our economy? It is a manipulative and sneaky tactic that we see being used, time and again. Protesting a genocide? Well, that it antisemitic (if one considers Israel as the sole representative of Jews, (which it is not). Protesting a war against Iran? That is Anti-American. Framing of issues to help certain agendas and ideologies is all around us. It takes a perceptive eye to get beyond what we see and read through the lines.
How to make sense of the world and go beyond the Rashomon effect:
With so much propaganda on every issue, who do we believe? American media today is totally unreliable as a source of credible, verifiable news as it is almost totally owned by a handful of billionaires who have refused to stand up to power. Gone are the days of Washington Post exposing a corrupt President. We have media houses that are actively seeking access to power, not challenging it.
In this media context, independent media outlets, journalists have emerged as perhaps the sole guardians of truth. Chris Hedges, Max Blumenthal are two names that come to mind when one thinks of investigative journalism. The Intercept, Zeteo, Democracy Now! Are some of the more well-known outlets that offer credible news, with a world-view that challenges authority and questions power.
One implication of the Rashomon effect is this: truth is not found in one telling, all the time and has to be gleaned from facts and also one’s own understanding of an issue. The most important factor that determines the veracity of any account has to be the credibility and believability of a source. How much do we believe a given source of information/knowledge? If a source of information has been spreading false information for a long time and is a known source of misinformation or disinformation, then one should not believe them.
On the other hand, if a source of information is usually spot on, but sometimes is wrong; it is wise to believe that source. For no one is right all the time. And that is the beauty of being alive, thinking and feeling as a human being.
And Rashomon teaches us this valuable lesson: In the world we live in, truth is often hidden, but not an impossibility to discover. And one way to do that is to cut through the unreliable news and views and propaganda of our times to reach for what is real and true. Even if it means questioning the very assumptions we were raised with. And often questioning the very sources that we think are meant to provide us the answers. Secondly, questioning what the concepts we are raised with mean: democracy, freedom and liberty. If someone tells you that they are liberating a country by bombing it, it may be worth a pause and asking: have you bought into this propaganda too easily?
It’s never too late to question your assumptions.
