The Whole Truth (Pt. 2)

September 19, 2004
By Jim Hammond
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I was taught; “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. Aha. Lying by omission, perhaps? This is one of the most popular ways of lying. Also, it’s the most easily rationalized. We can very easily forgive ourselves for this type of lie. Detective Smith tells us Aunt Grace has been picked up for beating a heartless stranger to death at the Mall. He asks us if we saw her with an umbrella. “Why, no”, we say truthfully. But we don’t tell him that we saw a broken, bloody umbrella in the back of her car. A rather extreme example, I know. But it was the segue that was important there.
Political Correctness. It’s the old story. What started out with the best of intentions has very quickly been twisted into a tool of the lie. It has degenerated to the point that the good intentions only remain as a façade to camouflage the corruption within. I have heard “Political Correctness” defined as: The elevation of sensitivity over truth. In other words, tell or maintain the lie rather than offend someone. We see it all the time. The worst examples being in some of the Public School Systems. Promote the failing pupil up through the grades, make excuses for their failure. Blame society, blame the Government, blame everybody but the kids themselves. Oh no! We can’t damage this child’s ego. We can’t allow these children to believe that they might be responsible for their own failure. Let’s tell them that they are just wonderful. Let’s congratulate them on completing their education. Let’s send them out into society totally unprepared for the heartless strangers that will bust a gut at their expectations. And then let’s wonder at the crime rate, and the violence. Political Correctness. This is titutionalized lying at it’s worst.
If the truth is in the way of somebody’s agenda, the truth will be suppressed and a lie will be inserted in it’s place. Then, if you dare point out the truth, or the lie, there will be an almost immediate reaction. It has become so bad that you have to be afraid to tell the truth. You can’t state a truth like, “There is a serious problem with illegal Mexicans in the south-west. They are putting a severe strain on the economy”. If you publicly say that, you will be accused of being a racist. You BIGOT, you are prejudiced against brown people, probably against Hispanics in general. Why DO you hate Chicanos!? You become branded with a lie as punishment for daring to tell the truth. There are shadowy “police forces” out there that watch and wait for someone to step over their self-defined PC line. And then that person is pilloried.
Enforce the lie. Maintain the lie at all costs. Yet, you really can’t put your finger exactly where it is coming from, except that the Media is its lackey. The American Media, once looked up to as the Beacon of Truth in the world, have become purveyors of the lie. Innuendo, half-truths, lies of omission, and big fat – out-n-out – boldfaced lies! Now in the spirit of fairness I won’t mention Dan Rather’s name here.
The shadow that the Political Correctness Gestapo cast over the truth makes people afraid to tell the truth. It is very much like being afraid to speak out because of the informers in Nazi Germany, or the fear of the Soviet neighborhood commissars who maintained the Party’s political order. If you tell the truth or if you question the lie, you are punished. Wait a minute! When we were kids didn’t we get punished for telling a lie? What is up with that? Huh? What? Excuse me? I’m confused. Something is very, very wrong here! Something stinks!
Who are these people who worship the lie? Where did they come from? When did this happen? Oh, like most things of this type it probably started out small. “That outfit. It’s YOU Aunt Grace”.
Jesus called Himself “The Truth”. How shall we interpret that? In this context, one way would be that, His way is the way of Truth. Follow the truth, support the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Follow the way of truth during your life to find eternal life. Let’s bring back honor. Let’s care about the truth. Let’s demand the truth. If a few feathers get ruffled, so be it. Ruffled feathers and bruised egos never killed anybody. And according to Nietzsche; that which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Truth is superior to man’s wisdom.” I agree with that sentiment, no matter what good we think we are doing by supporting the lie, it will always come back to bite us. Let’s stand up for what is right and proper. We do know deep down what the truth is. Are we just to sit back and accept the lie? That is the easy thing to do, and in the current environment, perhaps even the smart thing to do. But it is not the right thing to do. There are a few people out there, a very few, with the courage to stand up. Good, moral people like Bill Cosby, with the guts to speak the unpopular truth, and only good can come of it. If enough people challenge the lie, it cannot be protected. The lie will be reveled when we, together and fearless in our numbers, drag it into the light of truth.
I’ll wrap this up by referring to an episode of Star Trek classic. One called “Mudd’s Women”. In which Captain James T. Kirk, of the starship Enterprise, and his friend Mr. Spock are being held captive by the villain Harry Mudd, and his platoon of female robots. They must escape, so they come up with a plan to disable the robots that guard them. Mr. Spock convinces the logic dependent robots that everything Kirk says is untrue, that every statement Kirk makes is a lie. Then Kirk says to them, “I am lying!”
—fizz-sput-crackle…Does not compute…fzzz… and smoke comes out of their ears.
I don’t really know what the point was there, but I really liked that episode. No lie!

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© 2004 Jim Hammond. All rights reserved.