It is said that we live in a post-truth society, but perhaps it is just a “post-fact” society. Questions of fact become questions of opinion. All may be true to some degree.
In the past, seeing was believing. Now that’s the surest sign you’re being fooled.
Politicians appear to be moderate and reasonable. What’s behind the smile? Companies talk about justice and responsibility. That’s branding. A public figure professes repentance or reform. Please wait a moment. Depending on the channel you watch, even facts may no longer be “truth”.
Doubt became a reflex.
The surface lies. The truth must be buried deeper. Our politics is what keeps us from forgetting.
A few years ago I started reading Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. I don’t remember exactly why. I think it was a reaction to people like Deepak Chopra constantly talking about mindfulness and “finding your true self.”
Language was everywhere. Žižek’s argument is not about meditation itself, but what he calls it. spiritual capitalism— Transcendence into lifestyle management, spirituality absorbed into consumer ideology, meditation turned into red light therapy and “5D Quantum Sound” sessions.
Michael Satva, co-producer of Conscious Life Expo, describes the atmosphere bluntly: “With the advent of AI, no one knows what’s true anymore. So if you don’t know what’s true, you might as well enjoy believing in something more fun and exciting.”
Žižek retorts in his own style, “Don’t look inside yourself. All you’ll find is deep shit.”
He believes that the search for a pure inner self begins in the wrong place. If you look deeply enough, you will find no purity, but chaos. Growth comes not from digging deep within, but from taking on a role and committing to it. “The only way to overcome yourself is to identify yourself with the mask,” he says.
Žižek uses a scene from a Roberto Rossellini film to illustrate his point. General Della Rovere (1959), a famous World War II film starring Vittorio De Sica. In the story, an Italian petty con man is forced by the Nazis to impersonate a murdered resistance hero. At first, it serves to survive. Gradually, he grows into it. He refuses to betray others and dies publicly as General della Rovere. Žižek calls this “good alienation.” The man’s assumed “true self” is more important than the role he accepts. Therefore, freedom does not come from exploring one’s inner life. It comes from committing to something outside of yourself and living true to it.
The story of Max Beerbohm, happy hypocrite, tells a similar story. George Hell, a shameless hedonist, falls in love with a virtuous woman who can only love a man with the face of a saint. So he buys a mask. When he wears it, he wins her. What started as deception becomes discipline. Finally, when you peel off the mask, the face underneath matches the mask. Hell became heaven. Sometimes we become better not by discovering our “true self” but by acting on it – by practicing what we are not yet able to do.
We repeat phrases like, “Beauty is only on the surface,” “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” and “If only you knew the real person.” These are everyday versions of the old philosophical suspicion that appearances can be deceiving. What you see is misleading. The truth lies somewhere underneath.
You might think the opposite.
What if appearances aren’t a lie at all?
Owen Barfield, one of the most original and most neglected philosophers, spoke of “saving appearances.” Unlike thinkers who treat knowledge as a social construct laid down in a silent world, Barfield did not reduce reality to projection. His point was more subtle. he called it Participation: Consciousness and the world belong to one, and it is an encounter where consciousness and reality are intertwined. Appearance is not the opposite of reality. It is a one-sided way in which reality becomes reality. All facts cover the face.
Seen this way, the familiar warning loses some of its power. Your outward appearance does not hide your true self. Habits are not superficial. The roles we assume are not empty formalities.
Žižek emphasizes the feeling of alienation. The self is divided, uncentered, and never fully at home. Masks work because there is no inner core to betray. Mr. Barfield emphasizes participation. What emerges is not just a performance. It’s formation.
Taken together, their arguments are both simple and disturbing.
You may need to practice it by speaking long enough with moderation. If you claim responsibility too often, you can be held accountable. If you are serious about repentance, you may have to change. Don’t imitate until you can do it, practice until it becomes your own.
Let’s think about it charlotte’s web Written by EB White. Charlotte spins the words “Some Pig,” “Radiant,” and “Humble” into her web. At first, they are strategies, even hyperbole. Wilbur is still not what the web proclaims him to be. But he grows into words. They don’t hide reality. they evoke it.
The surface is where promises are made, habits take root, and character is tested. Faces are not just masks that we have come to distrust. It’s where life is shaped.
Appearances are not the enemy of truth. That’s where the truth takes shape.
In the past, seeing was believing. Our mission now is to live so that others are worthy of believing what they see.
notes and reading
Slavoj Žižek—Dolls and Dwarfs: The Perverted Heart of Christianity (2003). Žižek criticizes the idea of allowing people to participate in capitalism while alleviating the insecurities it causes as an “ideological supplement” that keeps the system running smoothly. See also Welcome to the Desert of Reality: Five Essays on September 11th and Related Dates (2002).
General della Rovere—Žižek, Films Quoted by Roberto Rossellini (1959). about desire desire And thinking about what kind of person you want to be is the theme of Russ Roberts’ book wild problem (2024) Thank you for your help.
“Inside the New Era of New Age Spirituality”-An example of how some people are currently imagining “a future full of possibilities and creativity to connect with our galactic brothers and sisters.” Language is intuitive and full of soul. (RNS, March 2, 2026)
The Happy Hypocrite: A Fairy Tale for Tired Men–Sir Max Beerbohm. A short story first published in 1896. A lighter, more humorous response to Oscar Wilde’s novel. dorian gray pictures.
Preserving Appearance: A Study of Idolatry—Owen Barfield (Wesleyan Edition, 1988). C.S. Lewis called Barfield “the wisest and best of my informal teachers.” His work has also been praised by TS Eliot, WH Auden and Saul Bellow.
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For readers familiar with René Girard, Barfield similarly sees desire as mimetic rather than private, but roots it not in competition or scapegoating but in participation, the co-creation of a shared world of meaning.
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Preservation of appearance It can be slow-paced, dense, and sometimes technical. Readers who want a starting point will find the Introduction and pages 122-147 particularly helpful.
addition:
imagination and fantasyy—more and more; fancy It separates us from appearances to empty reproductions based on reality, and from imagination that remains in living contact with what is actually there. Duncan Rayburn claims. This is now manifesting itself in superhero mash-ups, sophisticated avatars, and AI art. animeis currently gaining popularity, but is a partial exception. Because the way it’s drawn can still lend depth to the characters and the world. david armstrong.
easter is approaching
judgement
Approximately 2+2=5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
