2+2=?

 2+2=?

Thomas Huxley, “Learn what is true in order to do what is right.”

Buddha, “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

We’re going to start out by presenting a math equation to everyone to find the answer.  Some mathematicians out there will probably recognize this equation right away and think they know the answer.  Don’t be so quick to answer, you might not get the right one.  Ready?  2+2=?

Fifty years ago, I was sitting in a Philosophy class at Arizona State University.  This was a couple of weeks into the semester.  There were approximately 65 or so students in the class and we had assigned seating.  I was about halfway back.  In the isle next to me was Ben, not his real name.  He was struggling with the class.  Ben did not have a lot of self-confidence and was somewhat naïve.  But I liked Ben.

Please note that the Professor and I had already had ideological conflicts.  You will see why in a minute.

On this day, the professor was discussing one of Plato’s theories. And remember that Plato is highly regarded as the “Father of Communism”.

The theory to discuss was that if a group of people lived in a cave, that the majority of people would decide what was truth, or right or wrong.

To prove this one theory, he wanted to send a student out to the hall while the class was prepped for the experiment.  He called on Ben to leave the classroom.  The Professor had already figured out Ben, his weaknesses and had been picking on him already before today’s class.  Ben went outside and closed the door.

The Professor then explained how he was going to prove the majority rules and decides what is truth.  He wrote on the chalk board 2+2=?.  When Ben was to come back in, the Professor was going to ask him to come up and write the answer.  Ben came in and wrote the answer as 4.  However, we had been instructed to say that the answer was 5 and Ben was wrong.  The Professor asked the class if Ben had put down the right answer?  Most students said no, that the correct answer was 5.  I could tell most students were not comfortable with this situation.  Ben feebly tried to fight back but was shut down by the Professor and a couple of students supporting the falsehood of 5 being the correct answer.  Ben was getting frustrated and was overwhelmed in the moment. 

I stood up and challenged everyone that the true and correct answer was 4 and this was a sick trick to pull on Ben, much less any other student.  What happened then was great.  All the other students stood up for Ben and the number 4.

The Professor was beside himself but eventually relented back to the truth.

The next day I was summoned to the Professors office.  He very bluntly gave me 2 choices. 1. School was still in the early “class drop” period or 2. If I stayed in class, he would fail me no matter what.  I put conditions on #1.  I would follow what went on in his class and if anything went amiss or I heard of him picking on Ben, I would file a complaint with the administration and push for him to be removed.

In the Novel 1984, George Orwell uses 2+2=5 as well.   

“The phrase "two plus two equals five" ("2 + 2 = 5") is a slogan used in many different forms of media, but more specifically in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as an example of an obviously false dogma one may be required to believe, similar to other obviously false slogans by the Party in the novel. It is contrasted with the phrase "two plus two makes four", the obvious (by definition) – but politically inexpedient – truth. Orwell's protagonist, Winston Smith, uses the phrase to wonder if the State might declare "two plus two equals five" as a fact; he ponders whether, if everybody believes it, does that make it true?

Basically he is saying that as long as the party-(which has brainwashed all the citizens) has the power to control the truth, the public will never be free. Once people have the freedom to know the truth as they see it, to say that 2 + 2 = 4 instead of 2 + 2 = 5, then other freedoms will follow.”