Lies, Lies, and More Lies
Lies, Lies, and More Lies
I usually avoid commenting on politics, but every rule has its exceptions. I have been watching a lot of politics on TV, especially Abby Philip’s nightly program on CNN. She is an exemplary presenter: deeply intelligent, amazingly well-informed, and invariably polite (also lovely to look at—that quizzical smile). She always has guests from both political wings and invites vigorous debate. It ends up a shouting match. The conclusion I have reached is that the air is so thick with dishonesty, disingenuousness, deception, spin, nonsense, and plain outright lying that there is little hope for democracy in America. It takes two to deceive: the deceiver and the deceived. Both have reached extraordinarily high levels. Of course, deception from the right is by far the worst offender—though evasiveness (itself a form of deception) is flagrantly practiced by both sides. The intellectual level is very low (people have no idea about the ethics of lying—they badly need a philosopher to help them out). Truthfulness is regularly shunned and sinned against. Things are not much better in universities (I include philosophers). It is a disease that has taken hold of the American mind (but not only the American mind). What I have noticed is the close connection between lying and injustice—and hence violence. Lying is the preliminary to these vices. It prepares the ground. It smooths the way. It is a prelude to despicable acts. Lying is what you do if you have violence on your mind. And violence comes in many forms—harm might be a better word. If you want to harm someone, lie about them—you will find ready takers for your lies. That is Trump’s entire modus operandi: lie through your teeth and hope (expect) that you will be believed by people for whom violence is a way of life. Lying is a kind of violation of the truth; violence is a violation of the person. The two go perfectly together. When someone lies, expect violence to follow. Lying has become so commonplace, so routine, so reflexive that it takes a strong mind to withstand it; and not many people have strong minds. The sheer quantity of it is undermining all restraints against persecution, injustice, and actual violence. When truth doesn’t matter, nothing matters and anything goes. You can see the collapse of civilization flashing in people’s eyes—they have an appetite for destruction.
Trump is the king of liars, all the other liars look up to him (or at least say they do).
In the old days, lying was something politicians tried to do undetected, but Trump shows us that it really doesn’t matter if everyone knows it’s a lie. I suppose a parallel might be the old days of soviet Russia, where everyone knew the politburo were lying, but again – what did it matter – there was nothing anyone could do about it. These days as you say it is the deceiver and the deceived. Trump supporters want it to be true or at least go along with it, because they want the jukebox to get a good kicking.
However, as distasteful as I find Trump and dread him becoming president I very much understand the need to kick the jukebox or even take it apart. Post Thatcher/Reagan and the harnessing of individualism, the centre of politics has drifted so rightward while at the same time all parties of government have tried to inhabit it – UK Labour Party now believes that being in power is more important than believing in anything else at all and all Trump believes in is being president. Big business pays for all the candidates, the lobby groups have had their exclusive access, the military has already spent all the money, investors are lapping up all the debt, Mossad decides who will be prevented from running for government – all to the extent that the flashpoints are all on very minor things because nothing else can be changed. Couple that with countless bureaucracies that require even more bureaucracy to cut down the cost of bureaucracy and a frankly bizarre electoral system (I recently discovered about faithless electors – holy shit Batman). It would appear that politics is nothing more than an epiphenomenon and now that our countries have used up all the slave wealth and ill gotten imperialist gains we’re seeing how impotent our politicians truly are while everything goes to shit.
Just as an aside, I’ve been reading the Golden Bough on and off and was saddened to read James George Fraser’s description of the Aboriginal people as the lowest form of human tribe simply because the tribe was run by a council of elders rather than being supposedly advanced enough to have some manipulative liar/magician/deciever rise to the top and call themselves king.
Trump is the liar-in-chief, but a lack of commitment to truth seems to me ever more characteristic of American society. I include universities (philosophers not excluded). Disbelief in truth is the new religion in some quarters. Truth is the antithesis of power politics.