I was talking with a friend last week who manages a large apartment complex that houses over a thousand people. As such, she is exposed on a daily basis to what I would consider a pretty good cross-section of our society. That is why I found one comment she made to be particularly interesting. She said that, as time goes by, she finds fewer and fewer people she interacts with have what she considers to be “integrity.” I asked what she meant, and she said to her “integrity” is measured by the importance a person attaches to the virtue of telling the truth. In short, most people she deals with seem to have a predisposition to lie, even when, as she says, the truth would help them more. I, for one, think she’s on to something.
Sadly, it was my generation that initiated the “so I lied” mentality many years ago. According to that philosophy a lie was perfectly acceptable if it served their personal needs, even to the extent that, if they were caught lying, it didn’t matter. “So what!” they would say, “Everybody does it, and so, even if you catch me doing it, I don’t care.” Then, the next generation gave birth to the flip side of that coin, whereby the “truth” was further degraded to the sphere of relativity. Those inconvenienced by it simply mis-characterized truths as only someone else’s “perception,” while what used to be lies eventually came to be described as “spin.” The result? Between your spin and everyone else’s, the truth was ultimately mutilated and discarded along the way.
For example, take the recent announcement by Democrats that they intend to initiate a website devoted to appealing to “faith-based” voters. Apparently, the last several elections have taught them that their Party’s endorsement of Christian-bashers, not to mention abortion, gay-rights, and the legalization of illegals, has not played particularly well in America’s heartland. So now, we are told, the internet shall be used to persuade members of the Bible-belt that voting Democrat is a good idea, even though everybody knows that the Democrat leadership still despises the beliefs of these people whose votes they covet. So, it would appear that Democrats are now admitting their willingness to tell whatever lies may be necessary to get the votes they need to advance agendas they know would remain offensive to certain voters unless they are lied to. I know. So what’s new?
From one perspective, this effort is humorous. It reminds me of the old Milton Berle joke: “There’s so little trust in the country today. Yesterday, I heard a politician confess that he’d lied, and I didn’t believe him.” In my opinion, this is probably true about the Democrats’ “faith-based” website. Most likely, few will believe it. On another level, however, the problem created by such behavior has more serious adverse implications for us all when we consider the costs associated with our predisposition Berle jokes about to discard the truth even when it is made available. As his joke rightly points out, the hardening of our hearts caused by repeated lies eventually impedes our ability to recognize the truth for what it is. And for that, I can guarantee we could be made to pay dearly.
When truth ceases to be the common currency exchanged and relied upon by the citizens of a society certain adverse consequences become predictable. Among other things, the importance of attorneys increases, the number of laws, rules and regulations explodes exponentially, surveillance and infiltration activities become more pervasive, governments become more corrupt, and the virtue of concepts like the democracy our founding fathers envisioned ultimately loses whatever appeal it may have once had. As fraud and deceit become the norm, the value of people’s freedom to interact with each other and their government degrades over time. Historically, people then have shown an increasing willingness to exchange their freedoms for security, and that is the point where many societies in the past have unwittingly welcomed a totalitarian dictatorship to govern them with open arms.
What concerns me is that with the advent of a living Constitution that now means whatever judges and politicians may want it to mean, I no longer see anything that remains unique about us that would prevent a similar result from occurring in America. The only difference would be that the totalitarian regime we would be burdened with would be afforded far greater powers than have ever been available to tyrants in the past. Imagine a Hitler today that would have access to satellites that can not only photograph, but monitor our homes and at the same time use our cell phones to triangulate everyone’s exact location wherever they may be on the face of this planet. And that’s before we even get to a consideration of all the cameras and video cams have now been installed at almost every intersection we drive through and on most buildings we pass by. Such technology in the hands of a man like Hitler or Stalin should also give us a heightened concern about things like the existence of secret prisons (that are now admitted to exist) and the comfort some have today with justifying things like warrantless wiretaps and the use of torture upon those they unilaterally have determined to be enemies of the state. The point being, not whether these things are good or bad today, but were such things to fall into use by the wrong people the potential for horror would most certainly be tremendous.
Milton Berle also once joked that, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but not nearly as popular.” In my opinion, his joke should be a warning to us all. In light of today’s technology, the only thing that keeps our nation from becoming even more evil than the Nazis and Soviets once were is our integrity based on our tradition of respecting truth. So, perhaps we had better seriously consider restoring the foundation of those truths that this country was built upon or we may soon find that we will not remain a “great” nation for very much longer. Although those truths may not be as “popular” as some “fictions” progressives would have us believe today, I would suggest that without them, even progressives could soon find their lives to be less, shall we say, “abundantly fulfilling” than they were when those truths prevailed. So, all things considered, I think my friend’s point is well taken. Our increasing reliance upon lies makes no sense. Clearly the truth could help us more.
© 2006 Clifford C. Nichols, Esq.
Cliff Nichols is an attorney practicing criminal defense in Santa Monica, California. He may be contacted regarding this editorial at either (310) 917-1083, cliff@cliffnicholslaw.com or www.cliffnicholslaw.com and you may join his blog at www.thedailystand.com.