Post-truth

The Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year for 2016

POST-TRUTH

                                          This blog is a part of my ‘Sunday Reading’ assignment assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad Sir, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Head of English Department, M. K. Bhavnagar University on  Post-truth.

                                            This blog reflects my understanding of the word- ‘Post-truth’ and my views on the word with appropriate illustrations. 

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word ‘Post-truth’ as,

‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

                                    This word suddenly ceased public attention in November 2016 and people started to use it in everyday life. The word was made ‘Word of the Year’ in context of EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States and it became closely connected with a particular noun in ‘post-truth politics’.

                                               

                

It will be nothing wrong if we say that post-truth is a part of our learning and an esteemed weapon of the politicians to win the hearts of mass. 

                   Simply it is the decorated lie and half-truth which becomes totally irrelevant in the contemporary scenario and very hard to catch red-handed.  

History of the word says-

The compound word post-truth exemplifies an expansion in the meaning of the prefix post- that has become increasingly prominent in recent years. Rather than simply referring to the time after a specified situation or event – as in post-war or post-match – the prefix in post-truth has a meaning more like ‘belonging to a time in which the specified concept has become unimportant or irrelevant’. This nuance seems to have originated in the mid-20th century, in formations such as post-national (1945) and post-racial (1971). Source - Oxford Dictionary

The concept of post-truth is widely used in the political province. 

·  How politicians rule on population?

·  What can make people blind in cross-checking the reference adopted by politicians?