[T]he personal orientation of this scribe often led him to be skeptical about the idea of establishing one grand truth as absolute, and that there is truth per se that is true to one and all. At around the same time when I was thinking on this line, I got a chance to come across the chairperson of Peru’s Truth Commission (Salomon Lerner), whose specialization was the German philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Heidegger being a primary influence on existentialism (which viewed human existence as something thrust upon the individual who has no specific purpose to be on earth) and on deconstruction (which exposes truth as merely a linguistic construct and nothing serious as we usually tend to believe), it was quite interesting to discover that a Heideggerian professor had chaired the commission whose sole responsibility was to establish one finite truth.

“So, professor, how is it working out? Why did Peru choose you for the job and why did you accept it? How could you – a Heideggerian or a deconstructionist by extension – who has critiqued the very nature of truth as a variable and not as a constant, take this job?” A zero hour during our session in Lima allowed this scribe to put these questions to the Peruvian scholar. His response: “Perhaps that is why I was qualified.” Apparently, the Peruvians had realized the need of a person with a capacity to look at truth critically.

¶ 8:03 AM