Where is the truth? (#975)

To be able to fully employ my curiosity to it's greatest ability, I need to know what the truth is. There are many ways to find the truth but it does require a skeptically objective mind. I do not cede any truth to just someone telling me or assuming a truth must be true, I need to do observation and investigation. Even then the truth many times will remain elusive. Not being able to know the truth of something is still a truth in itself. So many possibilities and very few ways to learn what truth is. So what is so hard about just learning the truth of a thing? It is simply having an open mind and taking the time to search out all there is to know about a subject. This is where the trouble starts for most everyone. Taking time to learn is not easy when the demands of life are so overwhelming. It comes down to prioritizing. What is more important, the hard work of searching for truth or finding shortcuts and hoping that the truth is still what you find. I know many who have compromised on what the truth is to have not only the appearance of knowing the truth but the time back it would have taken to find out for oneself. The grand compromise. The problem here is that appearances are only just that, an illusion. The many people I have had conversations with who had some of the strangest viewpoints on things are the ones who did not do the research on the subject they are "experts" on, instead they took someone's word for it or only cursorily glanced at the material, without applying the necessary logic to make sure it was not fallacious reasoning. I understand their strategy in this respect; society demands so much of our time that we just can't take the time to do our own research and thus we must rely on others to do it for us. The problem is that others understand this as well and they use that to further their own agendas as a strategy. It is a sad commentary on our way of life that we can't find the time to research our own opinions.