Talk about the weather: #theresistance

Part of my course involves looking upward to the sky.   The students learn to identify major stars and track their motions.  When it is clear, they track the sun.    They learn the names of the clouds, and try to forecast shifts in the weather, e.g. whether a front is coming through.  The idea is that empiricism starts with what is in front of your eyes with phenomena that are readily accessible to the immediate senses.  

During the 2016 election cycle, bad actors on social media have wrought havoc with a sense of truth.   False (aka fake) news is pumped out on a daily basis.   Traditional news outlets have been played and pummeled as “MSM”, implying that their reporting is tainted.   Even statements that, prima facie, are clearly wrong are nonetheless promulgated as fact despite being logically fallacious.   Simultaneously, people scratch their heads and ask “what can we do?”  Often they’re dismissed as whiny liberals as if the adjective and noun are stitched together.   I have an answer: talk about the weather.

This remedy seems absurd on the face of it.   Why talk about the weather?   The answer is simple – it is a truth that is accessible to all of us.   It’s the lowest common denominator.  It is undeniable, it is in your face and not susceptible to tampering or falsification.   It is a habit that is ingrained in every human’s being.   This litmus test of truth can be found in the New Testament, where Jesus invokes it in Matthew 16:

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.  He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.  An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

[in this context 'adulterous' is generally taken to mean they have departed from a sense of spirituality, that Jesus was rejected, in this case] 

I don’t expect this modest post to ‘become viral’, but hope or wonder if my immediate circle of acquaintances might buy into this concept:  talking about the weather is a tacit act of resistance.  It is no huge secret that autocrats try to establish their own version of ‘truth’ in contradiction to facts that are readily discoverable.   There are discoverable truths out there – some more readily accessible to verification, some more difficult.  We begin with what is in front of our senses.   It’s cold, it’s hot, it’s raining, it’s snowing.  If you talk about the weather to a stranger or a friend, it is a secret handshake, an acknowledgement that at least you share this piece of truth.  If they answer back, “yes, this is crappy weather,” they are not only talking about the weather, they are acknowledging that they are with you, they are on the side of truth.  This simple act is multiplicative and becomes an act of resistance in daily life.