In this age of demagogic bombasts, famous (and infamous) for bloated, turgid rants and supercilious harangues on the ‘fear-of-the-day’ or cause célèbre, what was it about hearing a soft-spoken, octogenarian academician that appealed to the disparate gathering in Taipei on August 9th? One may conclude that what brought all those people together was the chance to bear witness – a hunger even – to one man’s quest for truth in a world of obfuscation, deception and propaganda.