Primo Levi's bearing witness and the reinterpreted past: post-truth and the authoritarian other

The stark realism of Primo Levi's experiences of the Shoah is considered in light of the current political climate in which the authoritarian other induces a divergence between reality, a state of things as they actually exist or existed, and truth, that which to some extent accords to reality. In this paper I will consider how truth becomes divorced from reality by considering Giegerich's interpretation of Plato's Parable of the Cave, arguing that truth is affected by perception and belief. After addressing 'truth' in justice, analytic work and the family, the post-truth phenomenon is discussed and defined as a force erosive to reason and sensibility; its general purpose is to avoid doubt and anxiety. The past is interpreted and re-interpreted to advance multiple geopolitical interests. Levi warned, in 1976, that the authoritarian state considers it quite permissible to alter the perception of what is true.