Standards and Truth

You, me and everyone else on the planet lives by a multitude of standards. Standards help us all buy, sell, communicate, drive, and have an untold number of relationships with each other and with things in our daily lives. We wouldn’t think of accepting a life without standards.

The value of our currency is determined by standards and this value is translated and equated to the value of foreign currencies so we can be assured a common avenue of commerce. A 99 cent item paid for with a dollar bill will get you a penny change all over America.

The standard of weights and measures means that a gallon of fuel in Arkansas is the same in California. A pound (or kilogram) of cheese in Wisconsin is the same in London. A mile is a mile, a ton is a ton, an inch an inch and a pint a pint wherever you go on earth (obviously allowing for the metric equivalents, and there are standard conversions for these!). It’s all measured the same because of accepted standards.

We even have accepted standards of service. We expect a certain level of “good” service when we go to out to eat and then tip accordingly. What if you didn’t have such service standards to rely on? What would that do to your expectations? Would you be less excited about your night out if you couldn’t have the expectation of receiving good courteous service? What if you go out and the waitress is insulting or the hostess slaps your kids around? Would you just accept it as a lower standard of service and hope for better next time?

Your television, radio, cell phone, computer and hundreds of other devices function, interact and interchange because of underlying standards that govern their operation. We even maintain huge statistical accounting practices to track everything from wages and employment numbers to consumer prices so that we can ensure we all get the same value.

Without accepted national and global standards interaction between individuals and businesses would be chaotic at best. Imagine going to a gas station in your neighborhood and each time you pay for 10 gallons of fuel but actually get a different amount every time? Now the price today varies each time but you always get the same volume pumped into your tank.

What if you never received the correct change when you paid for something? Would you accept it? What if the local store suddenly decided your dollar was worth 78 cents today and maybe 88 tomorrow? Maybe you buy a new car and the odometer is calibrated not in miles but in some unknown unit? You see digits that go from 3.7 to 3,452.1 across the dial and the salesman tells you this car is set to blips per fligget not miles per hour. Would this cause you any problems during your trip to Disney Land or while following directions or a map?

Take a moment and think all of the standards we live by and then consider what the impact would be if you could no longer depend on their existence.

Where does this necessity to have standards come from? Why is it important? The basis is in fairness and value. Even children yell “It’s not fair” when something doesn’t go their way. Why do we have such a strong inclination to create fairness and establish standards? Why do we demand “value” and seek any means to guarantee that we know and publish what that true value is? Why do we desire and even demand truth?