In these cases we talk about truth as a light, or truth as a disinfectant: metaphors which suggest that the falsehoods will shrivel and lose their power when they are confronted with the truth. In both cases, what is being demonstrated is the primacy of power over truth. Torture may not make its victims tell the truth, but it works wonderfully to make power relations clear. The truth here seems helpless against the assertion of the thing that is not so. When asked who we believe, “me, or your lying eyes”, we defend our imperfect democracy by trusting our lying eyes.

Source: The Guardian January 29, 2017 18:14 UTC