THE LIE

When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.  –Frederic Bastiat

Our culture’s basic foundation is now built on the lie. It starts in schools where cheating has become a way of life. Resumés have become fictions that bear no relation to the facts. Corporations distort their quarterly reports in order to attract gullible investors. The government lies on every economic report it issues in order to keep the American people in the dark about the real economy. It falsifies the reasons for going to war and by doing so wastes both blood and treasure. Presidents of the United States promise the people what they know they cannot deliver upon in order to get re-elected. Congress lies when it claims to represent the people who elected them. The mainstream media lies to protect the liars who own them.

What is it in the American psyche that predisposes the people to believe the lies?

My guess is that Americans have come down with an epidemic of complacency. Their center of the universe consciousness does not allow the vast majority to care about things outside of themselves. Others feel that there is nothing they can do about it and just give up.

When it comes to lying, there has been no example more blatant than the too-big-to-fail banks whose greed, fraud and mendacity brought down the global economy. Yet, the Obama administration has not initiated a single case against anyone on Wall Street.  How is that possible, you ask? Because just like the outrageous Republicans, the Democratic party is bought and paid for by the financial criminals.

Obama, the brilliant candidate, who tells the Middle Class what it wants to hear when he’s running for office, chooses Jacob Lew, a former Wall Street derivatives dealer as his nominee for Secretary of the Treasury. Isn’t it remarkable that Obama has surrounded himself with former Wall Street tycoons throughout his four years as president. His upcoming inauguration will be filled with inspiring rhetoric. But it is imperative to watch what he does, not what he says. Words lend themselves to lies. Executing those words into action is missing in action in the current American culture.

January 12, 2013