Richard Bircher lives in Lebanon.

Frequently, local columnists contributing to our regional publications refer to articles written by the New York Times (NYT). Clearly, the intent is not merely to reference a well-known news source that’s perceived as being both well-researched and accurate, thereby adding a definitive quality to the writer's own suppositions.

Underlying the inclusion of this publication is the implicit declaration of an established truth. Understandably, we prefer to believe our thinking and actions are based largely on sound, rational, verifiable data and concepts, which brings us to the evasive, always reinventing categories of information, facts, and most importantly, one’s personal worldview; or more precisely, our perception of manifest reality, where the specific situation being studied is in itself quite secondary to the highly personalized microscope we place it under.

Most any act or situation can be seen from a number of different angles. “Facts” are hardly bound by unanimity. Given time, one can usually rummage through the annals of all worldly data, locating the words of record that bolster their beliefs at the expense of another’s. Virtually any argument has a counter-argument.

Naturally, the validity of the source backing any assertion is a frequent point of contention. It’s quite apparent that to the faithful, the NYT is much more than simply a well-heeled news source. The publication has come to serve as both a status symbol and a secular icon — the high priest of integrity and accuracy providing us with the upper echelon of truisms. Clearly, it appeals to the more affluent, intellectually refined segment of society where its liberally tinged ideology is beyond reproach.

Once the NYT has been injected into the equation, the gauntlet has been thrust. For it serves as both an encyclopedic declaration of precise renderings and a double exclamation point emphasizing such.

Just how accurate are the sources we choose to reference? One person’s truth can easily test the cognitive limits of another’s. As animals constructed of fragile emotional underpinnings, we are more inclined to seek psychological stability, rather than psychological instability. So we pursue sources of truth (i.e. news) that overall compliments and conforms to our unique personalities and innate worldview, whether we’ve officially established one yet or not.

The NYT’s famous slogan, “All the news that’s fit to print,” well illustrates how a publication self-determines a perspective of events that’s as much based on what it doesn’t cover, as what it does. The slogan serves as both a noble, virtuous pursuit, as well as a disclaimer to any compelling requirement that a philosophical balance be sought, or even exists. For better or worse, the publication is run by human beings, and nothing better.

Whereas an air of liberal advancement and refinement attaches itself to the NYT, some of us are predisposed to a more earthy, quasi-populist intellect and intelligence, one comfortably positioned halfway between a Kit Carson and a Thomas Jefferson.

Regardless of one’s basis of intelligence, as adults, we become biased observers, less concerned about ascertaining facts and truths than we are about finding the means necessary to validate our own.

Whether intentional or not, as we age, constructing a highly personalized mode of maturation, we develop a belief system and self-satisfying worldview unique to ourselves, which in turn governs our overall interpretation of all that is around us.

For condensed universals, I posit the following: as lone humans we eat, we drink, we breathe, we sleep — beyond that we forge collectives seeking safety and comfort. Some seek larger ones, some smaller. Extending basic civilities, but needing not more; commonalities diminish, many all together.

Our inner world has fashioned parameters that align with an interior design formulated from numerous sources, both seen and unseen. For we have long since peered into the deep, pure, crystal clear waters of all worldly and otherworldly data, facts, truths, and concepts, finding just cause to hone in on those reflective of our own.

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