Music, at Least, Doesn’t Lie

Mr. Biss is a concert pianist.

The truth is under attack. Our federal government lies with impunity even when those lies are exposed by easily accessible evidence. A.I. erases the distinction between what is real and what merely looks real. We swim in an ocean of social media rife with falsehoods, promoted by algorithms that serve only profitability. The phrase “alternative facts,” so jarring when uttered by a senior White House official nine years ago, is by now banal.

The performing arts, with their warm embrace of subjectivity, might not seem the most likely corrective amid this crisis. But they have much to teach us about the notion........

© The New York Times