Alternative Reality Explained

About this poem

In 1952, a revolutionary book, written by philosopher-physicist Thomas Kuhn, was published under the title “The Structures of Scientific Revolutions.” This book introduced the world to a novel idea, the concept of a “paradigm shift,” a term that has widely influenced the world of Academia, the media, and the general public as well. As Kuhn, a philosopher-scientist, developed and employed the term, he was offering a scientific explanation of how science and scientific theories develop, change, and progress historically over time by gradually embracing new paradigms of thought, even as the previous paradigms remained in place, slowly being eclipsed and becoming overshadowed as new paradigms emerged and, in time, took center place. Kuhn described methodically the overlapping process of paradigm shifts that govern human society and the world at large, thereby contributing immensely to our understanding of scientific revolutions within an historical framework. What the virulent concept of alternative truth does, is to flip Kuhn’s scientific model of the structure of scientific revolutions upside down, and to restructure it as an alternative model that is stubbornly resistant to the natural process of periodic paradigm shifts, thus maintaining a model, contrary to the imminent and emerging novel status quo of paradigm shift, and asserting a status quo ante model that is counter to the new reality of the day. Examined carefully, it can be observed that the phenomenon of alternative truth acts antithetically as an anathema to the natural structure and process of scientific revolutions; and to such an extent, that we can argue with confidence that the phenomenon of alternative truth is, at its core, anti-science, patently false, and illogical. That it thrives as a virulent cultural meme, is also what makes it harmful to all societies wherever and whenever it is manifested. Stated bluntly, the phenomenon of alternative truth is harmful to the human imperative and motivation to establish democratic systems of government that are bound by principles of ethics and morality. more »