Truthiness, or, The Post-Modern Condition

Stephen Colbert's tongue-in-cheek "truthiness", loosely defined by the satirical talk show comedian as "truth unencumbered by facts" and "truth that comes from the gut, not books", was recently named word of the year by Merriam-Webster, the dictionary people. The award is to recognize words that manage to capture a sense of the passing year. At The Daily Wenzel we feel that truthiness speaks to a much larger social phenomena at work in today's society. The abundance of infromation, as well as the proliferation of "Research Institutes" backed by corporate interests, as led to a situation where individuals are awash in information, rich in detail and "facts", often contradictory and at cross-purposes. While these individuals may choose a particular argument and its encompassing rational structures, ultimately their choices are made based on what resonates strongest with their personal experiences and beliefs, or in Colbert's terms "gut."