The sentence above are largely rhetorical and perhaps it would be fairer to ask how these attacks are reacted to.
The British Library recently suffered a cyber attack by a criminal gang (I have done work on the Russian involvement with such criminal gangs but other than disruption it is difficult to see what could be obtained by Putin's government) and their personnel's data was dumped on the Dark Web when they refused to pay ransom. The BLs chief executive expressed the view that such people were against everything which libraries represent: openness, empowerment, access to knowledge." Such attacks have been slowly rising. Bostin city library was shut down in a ransomware attack in 2021. Toronto Public Library suffered a massive cyber attack in October. The city responded by declaring that such attacks were directed essentially towards civilised values.
While these attacks are criminal ones, Putin funded many of these criminal cyber groups and eventually they helped construct Russian misinformation and began working directly with Russia.
Are these actions to do with authoritarian states? Traditionally the Romans are suspected of destroying the Alexandrian Library. Generally, information is cut off in religious societies. Information dealing with understanding reality and the senses is attacked.
The bombing of Ukrainian information centres, archives, schools, museums, universities have been noted in the present war as in Gaza. Is the fate of Hypatia to be renewed?
Hypatia
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They attacked her in mid exploration Cutting away her golden thoughts As they cut away her flesh, destroying A mind that they couldn’t destroy in Debate, a sparkling old woman Whose thoughts were spun from steel.
The screaming mob desecrated her tiny form Dragging it into the dust, through the rubbish And shit. Tearing off her clothes The Parabalani exposed her to celestial winds crossing The arora, rubbing Spoilt Alexandrian soil into her unexplored vagina. She did not die as a philosopher, calculating and Learning, but, torn apart, the old woman Screamed out for her father, Terrified, in sacrificial pain so much worse Than beheadings and crucifixion. Her modesty, Kept for 60 years, mutilated by a 1000 killers in a single Minute.
Her head bounced in the forum, Her arms thrown to the 4 corners, Her soul stamped into the gutter, As the new religion cried out for tolerance. In a morning thinking became forbidden Books burnt, laughs ignored and fires built for heretics.
Hypatia was a female philosopher in Alexandria in the 4th century who was torn apart by a Christian mob, her skin scraped from her bones.
Libraries form at least a metaphorical, if not literal, representation of truth and critical thought. Repressive regimes thrive in an environment of mis/disinformation. To create the impression that a library is "broken" is to attack the reality that truth is a sure bastion against falsehood.
In the ancient world, conquering nations often destroyed temples in the places they conquered, a symbolic way of saying, "Your god is weak and we have prevailed."
We are living at a period when attacks on truth are relentless, with one version replaced by one which is infinitely worse.
We are too relaxed about the substitution of one truth with another based on the belief that 'truth will out'. This is the liberal response and withers easily under threat. Russia in twenty years could easily express the withering of intellectual enquiry but apart from the last phrase, which may remain rhetorically, in the West the growth of religion may achieve the same outcome.
It has in the past.
Things do not always bet better.
The belief that "truths" are independent is a myth. Truths are defined by communities. When only one community's beliefs are allowed, many truths disappear, because their communities disappear. Faceblank used to be about creating and participating in communities - but today, any community that challenges the ruling community's truth is simply squashed or eliminated entirely. Freedom to associate has disappeared, in the name of truth.
We are probably not talking about truth anymore when each of us has her/his own "truth." We can call this "belief" or, if several of us share it, we can call it "consensus." Truth actually is independent. It is true that the earth revolves around the sun or that our brains govern our bodily functions. We can't do anything about truth, so it actually is independent. Truth as consensus in a particular community is not really truth.
Tracy, you are right but are perhaps referencing certain kinds and aspects of truth. With truths of any kind come values. Is Putin's untruth a truth? I would say that freedom to associate has become emphatic and each association represents a truth, religious and political.
William, again right except that amongst the truths being attacked are those independent truths and the means and methods of establishing them. What if a society wants untruths to override your independent truths?
In fact there are several forces functioning at present to de-establish perceived truths and replace them with made-up events/truth, displacing real events with media truths through perception of those truths. So displacement comes in several forms.
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