Knowledge of the Truth is Power

The truth is not always what it appears to be because it is bended, pushed around, and hidden by the one who holds it. Manipulating the truth is not new to humans, and in fact it is used arbitrarily. This does not mean that one is capable of changing the truth. The truth can never change, it just is what it is. What I am saying is that the "Knowledge [of the truth] is Power." Through time there has been attempts to present the truth without distorting it in the form of story telling, reenactments, and more recently documentaries. Regardless of the format, the use of a media has been crucial to our understanding of reality. Documentaries tries to capture the facts and presents them in a way that is unbiased and least distorted through editing. If well executed, a documentary can help bring to light what really is going on, reality. Errol Morris' film, The Thin Blue Line, is an example of documentary film capturing reality by giving us an unbiased recollection of the facts, allowing all sides to be heard, and by revealing the truth.


Morris' documentary is following a murder investigation of a police officer. Harris (a teenager) killed the police officer but blames Adams for the murder. Harris helps the Dallas Police Department retrieve the revolver and stolen car. This helps the Police Department sentence Adams to prison and possibly the death penalty.

In the documentary, there are several versions of what is considered the truth. There is Harris' version, declaring Adams as the killer. There is also Adams' truth, claiming he did not kill the police officer. The Police Department also has their own version of the truth floating around as well; that Adams killed the police officer per Harris and that because Harris is a teenager, he did not kill the officer. Harris manipulated the truth in order to get Adams in trouble; despite the evidence pointing to Harris. This shows that the truth appears to be different according to the person one asks. However, as I said before, truth cannot be changed. There is only one truth.

In the documentary Adams' lawyers attempts to present evidence supporting the theory that Harris was on a "crime spree" and that it was actually him whom killed the police officer. However, the judge and the law enforcement agents did not believe that a teenager could be capable of organizing and carrying out multiple crimes. This is crucial to point out because it shows how the judge and law enforcement agents were blinded or maybe did not want to see the truth. Plato talks about this in Book VII of The Republic.  Plato says:

"In the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed."

If one applies this idea of truth as the guiding hand of rationality, then one can see how the judge and law enforcement's rationality was distorted by what appeared to be the truth. They did not see the truth because they were so fixated in Harris' testimony and one could even go a bit further by saying that they were not open to the idea that kids could kill a police officer in cold blood and commit the following crimes in Vidor, Texas. On top of that, the pressure of capturing the killer of one of their own pushed the judge and law enforcement agents to quickly jump to the conclusion that only an adult could commit such crimes and that was Adams. Adams' lawyers presented proof that Harris should be the one investigated because of his crimes and since he knew precisely where the stolen car he drove when pulled over by the police was located and where the firearm was located used to kill the police officer. As the lawyers claimed, all of this put together points to Harris.

However, as one of Adams' lawyer points out, the judge wanted to prosecute Adams because of his age. Adams was 28 years old and could be given the death penalty. To the judge, the death penalty was justice and a prominent motive to find Adams guilty. As in the picture, it took hard work and convincing on the lawyers behalf to show that that Harris was not as innocent as they thought (the truth).

Not only is the truth difficult to discover but it is also difficult to present to others. For those that are not used to seeing the truth, it can be blinding when one sees it. In the documentary, different versions of what was considered the truth were shown. Morris does this to stick to the closest interpretation of reality. Morris has to provide an unbiased film that does not depict one side more good than the other. This is important to maintain, so the viewer can accept the truth for what it is. The documentary is only a means to an ends and should be used to present the truth.

The capability to see the truth is possible. Plato finds it possible to learn the truth because the "power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already." As seen in the documentary, The Thin Blue Line, documentaries help bring the truth out of the darkness. Adams is eventually found innocent and released from prison. It is up to the viewer to accept the truth and take it as it is.