Available
Exhibition: Sweet Little Nothings
Award Winner: Honorable Mention
Art No: PP0979
Artwork Width: 165 CM (66 INCHES)
Artwork Height: 95 CM (38 INCHES)
Year Created: 2019
Medium: Oil
Surface: Canvas
The philosopher and ethicist, Lee McIntyre, has described post-truth as “a rejection of the idea that some things are true irrespective of how we feel about them.” In a climate of post-truth, what is accepted as fact is trumped by our feelings about the world that we prefer, not the world as it is. Thus, people are tempted to treat the findings of scientists selectively. They choose the truth when it supports their preferences and dismiss it as “fake news” when it does not. Paradoxically, they trust their mechanics to follow the scientific method to fix their cars and their doctors to identify and treat their illnesses, but they reject this method of truth-seeking when it contradicts their feelings.
Thanks to the confluence of a variety of factors—the global reach of social media, the growing commercialization of human activity, and a new wave of populist politics in western democracies–the allure of putting feelings ahead of facts is now even more widespread. One of the most profound examples of post-truth thinking is the rejection of the scientific consensus the existence, the causes, and the dangers of global climate change. In the October 2018 assessment report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world came to four sobering conclusions. First, the scientists affirmed that the evidence for global warming is unequivocal.
Second, they stated that there is more than a 95 percent probability that human activities over the past half century have played a major role in bringing about these changes. Third, they listed scores of examples of the breadth and depth of these dangers. Among these perils, they pointed to vast impairments to people’s health, their livelihoods, and their personal security; the growing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, such as floods and wild fires; and the extinction of numerous forms of plant and animal life. They also acknowledged the profoundly destabilizing impact of climate change on social stability. To cite a prominent example, global warming has played a central role in the mass migration of peoples from the countries of the South to the North. As we now see in Europe, this exodus has had significant political ramifications. Finally, the panel made a dire prediction. Unless we take drastic steps now, we have only twelve years before global warming will exceed 1.5 degrees centigrade and these threats to our well-being become irreversible.
Although we have little more than a decade to take drastic steps based on above mentioned facts, we, as a post - truth society, choose to, for short term gratification, create a 'mythical world of endless resources.... instead of facing the undeniable facts and seeing the dire, very real world we are living in.
In this work' Perception is Reality ' I question the society future generations will be living in due to the "post truth" choises of past generations.
http://sites.nd.edu/ten-images-of-hell-fall-2019/post-truth-climate-change-and-the-idea-of-the-modern-catholic-university/
Original Price: Upon Request