Fact: Something That Has Really Occurred Or Is Actually the Case; Something Certainly Known

Fact, Perspective, Narrative, and Truth

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

~Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Fact:Something that has really occurred or is actually the case; a truth known by actual observation or authentic testimony, as opposed to what is inferred, guessed, or hypothesized; a product of experience, as distinguished from the conclusions that may be based upon it.

Perspective: A particular attitude towards or way thinking about something; an individual point of view.

Narrative: The story we tell or believe in order to explain how a set of facts or events are connected to each other.

Truth:The quality of being true; conformity with fact or reality; an obvious or accepted fact; for the purpose of this unit, we will use “truth” as something each person creates for him/herself—an interpretation of facts according to his or her own perspective.

How are fact, perspective, narrative, and truth different?

Example: Was the Cold War worth it?

Fact: $8 trillion ($8,000,000,000,000) was spent, worldwide, on nuclear and other weapons between 1945 and 1996. At their peak, the world's nuclear stockpiles held 18 billion metric tons of explosive energy: 18,000 megatons. Today, they still hold 8,000 megatons. Compare these totals with the entire explosive energy released by all bombs dropped in the Second World War (6 megatons); in the Korean War (0.8 megatons); in Vietnam (4.1 megatons).

Perspective (some examples):

The money the U.S. spent fighting the Cold War was worth it to protect the U.S. and the rest of the world from communism. Communist dictators in the U.S.S.R. and their satellite countries were oppressing their own people. The expansion of communism was threatening to the United States’ freedom and democracy.
The U.S. overreacted to the communist threat; the billions of dollars we spend fighting the Cold War was not worth it. Communism may have been a phase that would have come and gone without any resistance from the U.S.
Communism was threatening, but not enough to justify the billions of dollars spent fighting the Cold War. The United States was not even successful in all of the countries in which it tried to stop the spread of communism. There are many other more useful ways in which this money could have been spent.
The spread of communism was a threat that justified spending so much money because the USSR was gaining to much power with their influences in other countries and advances in technology. The U.S. was the only country after World War II powerful enough to take on the USSR.

Narrative:

Communism is good because it makes everyone equal. Communist states provide healthcare and education for all their citizens. The state controls the economy and makes sure that all citizens have jobs that pay them enough money. The government rations food to ensure that no one goes hungry. Although a dictator is usually in control of the government, this control should eventually fade away, leaving all citizens of the country equally in control of their own fates and the future of their country.

Communism is bad because it is oppressive and unfair. Citizens of communist countries have little control over their own lives. They are told where to work and have no power over how successful they are or how much money they make. They must rely on the state for healthcare and education, which can vary in quality. Dictators of communist countries can become brutal and controlling and unfairly punish their citizens or take away their rights.

Truth:What do you think? Was the money spent fighting the Cold War worth it?

President Geogre W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, September 20, 2001
United States Capitol
Washington, D.C.

On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country.Americans have known wars -- but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941.Americans have known the casualties of war -- but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning.Americans have known surprise attacks -- but never before on thousands of civilians.All of this was brought upon us in a single day -- and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.

Americans have many questions tonight.Americans are asking:Who attacked our country?The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda.They are the same murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.

Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime.But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world -- and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.

The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics -- a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam.The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children.

This group and its leader -- a person named Osama bin Laden -- are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries.They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror.They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.

The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country.In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda's vision for the world.

Afghanistan's people have been brutalized -- many are starving and many have fled.Women are not allowed to attend school.You can be jailed for owning a television.Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate.A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough.

The United States respects the people of Afghanistan -- after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid -- but we condemn the Taliban regime.It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists.

Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there.It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.

Americans are asking, why do they hate us?They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government.Their leaders are self-appointed.They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.

They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East.They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.

These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life.With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends.They stand against us, because we stand in their way.

Fact:

Perspective:

Fact, Perspective, Narrative, and Truth

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

~Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Perspective: A particular attitude towards or way thinking about something; an individual point of view.

Narrative: The story we tell or believe in order to explain how a set of facts or events are connected to each other.

Fact / This wall is approximately 485 miles long and is 25 ft. tall. It is made of concrete blocks. It separates families from one another, as well as families from their farmland, jobs, and schools. In 2004, the United Nations International Court of Justice ruled the wall was illegal and should come down.
Perspective / To Palestinians, this wall is oppressive and a tool of occupation. To the majority of Jews, this wall is a measure of security and necessary.
Narrative / This wall is a symbol of apartheid. It has severely limited Palestinians ability to move around and almost destroyed their economic well-being. It has separated people from one another. Many university students have had to stop going to school because they can no longer each their universities. People who used to live across the way from one another are now separated by the wall.
Truth / This wall is not a measure of security. It is being used to continue to humiliate and degrade Palestinians and control them at all costs. There is no evidence that the wall has secured Israel. Unemployment and poverty rates have risen since the building of the wall.