The following is a response to a series of questions posed by the site Classical Wisdom.
Does the Noble Lie Exist today? Can ANY falsehood be Noble? And does the pursuit of Truth mean we should uncloak disinformation, even if it’s for the ‘greater good’?
The answers to these questions bloom with the union of the words noble and lie. Typically, we take the word noble to mean possessing a quality of moral or ethical superiority, differentiated by what we mean when we say, “She made a noble effort” or, “The nobles of the realm demand the truth.” Once we agree on this first definition, the seed is sown. The moment we attach the word lie to the word noble we create a flower of contradiction, a word synonymous with paradox.
Avid readers of the classics do not fear paradox, regardless of Zeno of Citium, for as Heraclitus taught us: “The road up and the road down are the same.” It is here, in paradox, that the noble lie flourishes.
Simply put: Truth lies in paradox.
Well, a certain kind of truth anyway. Broadly speaking, I believe there are three kinds of truth: Absolute, relative, and paradoxical. Paradoxical truth is necessary for the resolution and perpetuation of absolute truth; relative truths are the effluvia generated by the interaction of absolute and paradoxical truth.
Essentially, I am suggesting that paradox is the bedrock which turns away the spade of reality. In Plato’s Ideal, I contend paradoxical truth is more fundamental than absolute truth. Why? Like a vacuum, Nature abhors absolutes. If one doubts this, attempt to measure the absolute position of an electron and its trajectory with equal precision. On the other hand, try and fish out your cellphone after you’ve whoopsied it into a black hole. It is in this spirit we ought take note of just how much vacuum there is in the universe for nature to truly abhor it (to say nothing of the number of black holes). It is perhaps more equitable to say that Nature loves absolutes with the same fervor in which she loathes a vacuum and she feels free to switch as necessary. In order to gain entry/escape from/with the absolute, paradox is required.
The noble lie is an example of enantiodromia in action. Appropriately, the word is ancient Greek, from enantios – opposite and dromos – running course. Here again, Heraclitus is the inspiration and founder (in the Western tradition) for what Nicholas of Cusa in Latin came to call coincidentia oppositorum, the unity of opposites. Perhaps nowhere else does the unity of opposites display itself more prominently than in the realm of politics.
The important thing to remember about enantiodromia is that it is a process; its shape and pattern are recognizable. Its salient tenet is thus – when a thing reaches its extreme it transforms into its opposite. Few things are more extreme in collective human endeavor than an empire. Empires are patterns as well, a fact well known to Marcus Aurelius (the last of the “five good emperors”) – “Look back over the past, with its rising and falling empires, and you too can see the future.”
So can any falsehood be noble? Is it not true that great good often first passes through the arch of evil? Is its opposite, that great evil often first passes through the arch of good, also true? William Blake tells us we know when we have encountered a profound truth when its opposite is also true. Is this not the definition of paradoxical truth?
The noble lie is noble on the obverse and ignoble on the reverse. The curse of the noble lie is not knowing which side of the coin will show itself after the toss. Therefore, even if an empire (or country, state, city – hell, school board) chooses to employ it out of a sincere effort to serve “the greater good”, that greater good is only ever served half of the time. Such are the vagaries of human endeavor, every problem carries the seed of its solution and every solution carries the seed of the next problem.
It would be comforting to think we can do away with the noble lie but we cannot. We can, however, choose to use it only by extreme necessity.
Truth lies in paradox.