An unspoken assertion when arguing in favour of free speech is the notion that more information is unequivocally a good thing, which is itself built on the mythical image of information as a source of light in a thick black fog of ignorance that needs to be conquered; the more light one can gather by one’s side, the more of the truth one will see, until ultimately all ignorance dissolves away and only truth remains.

The danger here is the unchallenged assumption that information is transparent and illuminating, potent in its capacity to permanently dispel the fog, sincerely and strictly revelatory, never obscuring never confounding.

I challenge this fundamental assumption. Information can deceive, mislead, obfuscate, erode or worse, straight up bury the truth. Information isn’t the opposite of ignorance, because one can be more ignorant with more information, if said information happens to be untrue, irrelevant and/or unfair.

You see, I don’t see information as a source of light in the fog, that’s what truth is. Truth cannot be created or destroyed, only found or lost. The truth will remain where it is found, it cannot be hoarded by anyone, nor can any special permissions be derived from such an aggregation. Discovering any number of illuminating truths will not reward you with a simple path through and out of the fog; in fact, more light will only highlight more of the never-ending fog.

The sole task of the truth-seeker is thus to learn to recognise truth when they see it, and not be deceived by prettier illusions. Enlightenment is a state of equanimous acknowledgment of the truth such as it is, limited in utility, comfort and reach as it has, over and over again, as and when new truths are discovered. The fog is endless, our paths through it are contingent on a million variables, and the final destinations will remain obscured till the very end.

The truth is and will always remain a pathless land.