Soccer Frustration and Postmodernism's Problem

The philosophy known as Postmodernism, while still evidenced in popular culture, is in its dying days. One of the main tenants of Postmodernism is that since it is impossible to know truth, there is no absolute truth. This was a reaction to the Modernist idea that it was theoretically possible to know everything. As is often the case when people encounter a problem, Postmodernism went to the opposite extreme.

The problem is that there is an absolute truth—a reality—and we can know truth. Maybe not all truth and all of reality, but we can know and recognize truth when we see it. Take soccer for example. Soccer is a sport where only one opinion and perspective count. If the referee sees something happen, it happened. If the referee does not see something happen, it did not. The only problem is that audiences also see what is happening, and especially with today’s technology, they see the reality of what occurred. So, when a referee calls a player off-side when they are not, it makes fans mad. We are mad because we see a team being punished for something they did not do. Even more ire is induced when a player does a convincing piece of acting and gets a player sent off when they didn’t do anything. We know truth and hate injustice.

Just because the referee has a limited perspective and therefore a limited knowledge of reality, it does not mean that there is no reality. We all have a limited perspective of reality and can only know a portion of truth. However, reality and truth do exist in spite of our limited perspective. Knowledge and Reality are not synonymous, and we can know reality. Especially when an outside perspective shows us reality that we cannot see on our own.