Dr Asangba Tzudir
Delving away from the complex idea proposed by what Nietzsche wrote on the ‘will to power’, the status of our society today is such that the ‘will to truth’ in simple terms can also be seen as a struggle of the will towards the truth.
The will is not always directed towards the truth because often truth finds veiled, so also the will finds constituted within what is commonly known in Greek as ‘akrasia’ or the ‘weakness of the will’ which defines a human condition where one lack in self control and where one acts against one’s better judgment.
One would wonder how a human person, a rational and moral being can act against one’s better judgment, or knowingly choose falsity over truth. Looking at the nature of the way our society is constituted and the way it operates it is no wonder for even a moral rational being to act contrary to one’s better judgment.
The question then is for seeking ways to strengthen the will and which should be directed towards the truth. While corruption and the so many forms of untruths begin at home, strengthening of the ‘will’ then should also begin at home. Like the kitchen hearth which is central to the house, likewise the ‘will’ which is also central to the human person as a moral being needs to be nurtured with a new outlook, a new moral philosophy of life and living.
This moral philosophy of life needs to be founded on a “categorical imperative” a term used by Immanuel Kant, which is a moral imperative that is qualified by a ‘moral ought’ where each act should be done for the sake of duty and for nothing else, not as a means to an end. Such moral philosophies should be located at the heart of the human will in order to strengthen it to combat against the weakness of the will.
Considering the corrupt situation today, there is an urgent need for the ‘will to truth’ to become a major system that would exert pressure as a “power of constraint on other discourses.” At stake is the ‘will to truth’ today which is calling on human autonomy as a moral person to uphold the truth and its discourses.
It is also calling upon especially the Naga youths today to strengthen their will in truth towards combating corruption. The ‘will to truth’ is calling on the people to strengthen their will to combat the so many forms of untruths. Even the Church today finds itself sacrificed at the altar of materialism.
Looking at the society today, it finds diseased by corruption in many ways, and it is time for the ‘will to truth’ to speak up against corruption instead to processing it. Our society is in dire need of truth and sadly it finds veiled today because it is either veiled or because of weakness of will which blinds one’s better judgment.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir contributes a weekly guest editorial to The Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
