![]() ![]() And I’ll consider them as viruses competing for dominance in the ‘culture medium’ of modern, hyper-connected society-on the analogy of the Covid virus spreading throughout the hyper-connected world of international travel. ![]() I will start by considering two ideas-two messages-two tales to use Francklin’s word. And which, at this moment in time, is at the root of one of the greatest threats that humanity has to face – a virtual pandemic of false information. Thomas Francklin had no inkling that it would one day be possible for ideas, true or false, to spread to, quite literally, ‘all corners of the earth’, or that they wouldn’t need wings, winds, steps, or even time, to do so. But of course he didn’t mean his words to be taken literally-he was saying something about human nature which is just as valid today as it was two centuries ago, which had its origins in primitive society. ( Google Books Full View) ‘ Truth has neither vigour nor activity enough to pursue and overtake her enemy.’ 1787, Sermons on Various Subjects, and Preached on Several Occasions by Thomas Francklin. The following rather delightful version was published in an 18th century book of sermons by the English polymath Thomas Francklin:įalfehood will fly, as it were, on the wings of the wind, and carry its tales to every corner of the earth whilft truth lags behind her fteps, though fure, are flow and folemn, and fhe has neither vigour nor activity enough to purfue and overtake her enemy. Because they respect the complexity of reality and yet facilitate meaningful decisionmaking, Professor Sherwin argues, affirmative postmodern narratives offer an alternative way for the law to define truth and justice.There is a well-known saying about falsehood, credited variously to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and others, which goes something along the lines of a lie going half way round the world before truth gets its boots on. ![]() Affirmative postmodern tales embrace the multiplicity and complexity of details, but they orient their audience within a shared cultural storyline-a popular myth, a stock metaphor, a familiar character type-that allows one to create meaning out of the mass of information presented. As an alternative to orthodox linear narratives, which reach closure only by concealing or denying inconsistent details, and to skeptical postmodern narratives, which never reach closure or even attempt to make sense of their details, Professor Sherwin urges lawyers and legal scholars to engage in "affirmative postmodern" storytelling. Sherwin examines the interplay of a traditional linear story with a discursive postmodern story in Errol Morris' film "The Thin Blue Line." Professor Sherwin concludes that Morris' linear tale effectively eclipses the uncertainties introduced by its acausal counterplot, and he attributes the failure of this second story to the more general epistemological failure of skeptical postmodernism. ![]() Faced with such important tasks as ascertaining truth and promoting justice, this audience will favor storylines that offer meaningful resolution. Although these stories replicate our experience of the quick-cut image sequences that define contemporary popular culture, they can have only limited persuasive force in the legal arena when they prevent their audience from reaching articulable, justifiable conclusions. Postmodern storytellers can fashion narratives that convey many different, yet equally convincing, visions of reality. ![]()
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