When They Stop Believing

October 2021

Sadly, I’ve lost so much emotion for my country, its culture, and society. While I hope to recover, I’ve basically become numb after watching the uncivil discourse that now passes for the norm, a redefinition of what is truth, destruction of once beautiful cities where elected leaders either fear the criminal element or the ideologically most aggressive, selective censorship, lack of respect and cooperation with the office of the CinC (no matter who sits behind the Resolute Desk), felonious immunity for the chosen few plying their trade within The Swamp, certifiable lawlessness for certain political/economic/racial classes, judicial activism and overreach, and the embarrassing national theater we once knew as the United States Congress.

What has happened to America … how and why did it happen so fast? There are 80 million people that would love to blame one guy with a fake tan but if they had a shred of honesty, they’d have to confess it started a long time before his trip down the escalator.  

Regrettably, the American future doesn’t appear to have any silver bullets. There is no single person on the horizon who could reunite the two sides that have drifted so far apart. No post-depression FDR, no post-Nixon era Gerald Ford, no post-Carter era Ronald Reagan with the capacity to bring the two sides together. But more importantly than a single person are the Americans that have chosen a societal side to which they have become married. Whether or not it’s an ‘until death do us part’ relationship is to be seen. The courts, the next generation, the Beltway, virtually all forms of media, government entities and their leadership, even our service academies have doubled down on a socially, politically, and constitutionally destructive ideology to the point where they have indoctrinated a legion of followers.

When citizens start to believe that they have been rendered impotent in terms of their civic participation and stop having a reason to believe the information they’re being fed – they will become silent, disengage, disconnect, and simply go about their life in a compliant manner knowing they have absolutely no say in any outcome within their existence. We’ve watched this life and world view play out in every country that has gone in this direction; USSR and their satellite states, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq formerly, and every Third World country power structure that knows they can get away with anything because their citizens have become numb.

Where do you go for the truth? I’ve asked that question a lot. There was a time when I counted on a variety of semi-trusted sources from which to assimilate info, apply various filters, and parse out good from the bad. Regrettably, most have either been co-opted by a specific ideology, censored, canceled, or simply silenced leaving those that actually still care with even fewer places to garner reliable information. This applies to state and federal authorities, corporate leaders, once respected institutions, government officials, and the litany of media outlets.

Why is this important enough to write about? Because finding trustworthy and truthful information provides the foundation for our basic system of beliefs. This belief system literally becomes the baseline for who we are; our core values of right and wrong, good and bad, and our personal view of reality that provides a foundation for how we act on a daily basis. When segments within that system break down it throws our entire world into an area of doubt. Once we’re told that A isn’t true the next question is; what else isn’t true? It only takes one deliberate lie, obfuscation of facts, or exaggeration of details for honest people to build filters into who and how they receive information.

We’re at an inflection point in the United States in terms of the way American citizens view culture and our uniquely American way of life. So many things that were ingrained into our basic system of beliefs which we used to count as trustworthy, resolute, and unspoiled are now questioned on a daily basis as we witness the very history of this country being rewritten and taught in our public schools by those who didn’t like the original version of documented evidence, testimony, and long-held fact.

What’s left to actually believe in? Apparently, I am not alone as I find more and more people are harboring this exact sentiment and it’s not confined to one ideological side or another. It speaks directly to the American way of life. Obviously, the media outlets across the board head the list of entities I no longer have confidence in or fully believe. They are followed in close second by state and federal politicians and virtually every government agency that takes its lead from inside the Beltway. My information highway now has countless and very fine mesh truth filters.

What is so sad is that we’ve done this to ourselves in the name of progress, technology, need for ratings and the 24-hour news cycle, and most decidedly, ideology. What’s gone by the wayside, what used to be revered? The truth.

The famous quip attributed to Chico Marx, “… who ya gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?” is especially apropos to the current American sociopolitical environment. It’s a perfect storm where government agencies and their operatives, mass media, and big tech do everything in their power to convince the masses looking for truth, importance, and relevance that they are the ultimate arbiters of what one should read, watch, consume, and believe.

It’s become a war for your (and my) mind. I’m hopeful in one area, however, that Americans are smarter than that and at some point, will realize how they’re being played.

The Abandonment of Truth

January 2015

The subject matter expert was trotted out by the 24 hour news station to present his opinion. He answered some peripheral questions establishing his credibility and then had the audacity to say he not only didn’t know what caused the plane to crash but wasn’t even willing to speculate until more of the facts had been vetted and examined.

What a relief! He actually gave me reason to believe him because he didn’t know something and wasn’t willing to offer even an opinion. For me, his key phrase was ‘until I have more of the facts to vet and examine’.

But what happens when other experts aren’t as disciplined and spout off an eloquent sounding opinion that makes them look good and sounds like it might make sense? Assumptions are presented as fact and form a narrative. The faulty premise becomes the story and judgments are made. Lines become drawn and emotions incited on a mere assumption not based on truth or any real digestion of the facts involved. The media is happy to put it above the fold, devote Op-Ed space, and make it the headline story every half hour on the cable news networks. Why? Because they know you’ll believe it.

Consider the Duke lacrosse team fiasco a few years back or the more recent Rolling Stone Magazine article chronicling a rape culture at the University of Virginia. It made great press, sold tons of copy and gained national attention and invective. Only one problem: both accounts were fictional, pure untruth. Thankfully someone had the energy to discover the real truth and bring it to light; after the damage was done.

Truth: the state of being the case: the body of real things, events, and facts: in accordance with fact or reality: what actually is or was

Pretty amazing in this day and age that a subject as basic as truth has to be defined in order to lay groundwork but we have come to accept so much falsity as truth it has turned our worldview upside down and our sense of reason into disarray.

Truth is one of the main cornerstones of a free and self sustaining society. Without it there can be no trust or system of beliefs among its members. In the end, a leaders is only as trustworthy as his word. When people lose their ability or desire to seek the truth, they turn into gullible flock of sheep willing to follow the shepherd with the loudest voice that pleases their own self interest. Too often we find out after the fact that the shepherd was more than willing not to let the facts spoil a good story.

Where we get our facts makes a huge difference in our frame of reference. Whether it be from the Fox, MSNBC, CNN, elders, friends, educational pursuits, The Daily Show or Facebook; they all require a level of examination that many in our society have either abandoned or never developed. Long ago when elementary and high school curricula traded away developing a students’ critical thinking skills for focusing on test prep and results – our intellectual culture took on a tabloid worldview. Students blindly consumed what was fed to them, never questioning origins and rationale; never mind seeking cause and effect relationships. Learning data is easy but finding and correlating an underlying relationship between data bits is not. A fact became anything said by someone respected.

In Ferguson, Missouri a false narrative was formed by eye witnesses who initially lied about what they saw only to recant their account under oath. Activists stirred the pot while emoting about grand jury deliberations they never privy to. This abandonment of truth and total disregard for inconvenient facts led to senseless violence in the streets.

In the New York City grand jury case, a video suddenly made everyone an expert on police procedure as well as an eyewitness to an event where context was totally ignored. “Never mind anything else, I know what my eyes saw!”. Those eyes made assumptions on everything from police knowledge, intent, and training to the victim’s mindset, motivation, and medical history. In both cases our 24/7 media jumped on the storyline as commentators began choosing sides.

I submit that in neither case did any of the purported experts ever take the extra time to examine and analyze the hidden facts as intently as they did the public video. Truth and facts became secondary.

The media, internet, and the streets aren’t the only places you’ll find the abandonment of truth. The 2016 elections are just around the corner and we’ll be fed doses of rhetoric from those who would like to lead our country. Insincere and grandiloquent language that will pass for fact and truth will emanate as political apparatchiks stray as far from facts as allowed by law (sometime farther). We not only won’t blink an eye but will  accept it as part of the political game. Consider this: A campaign will do whatever it takes to get someone elected and then be expected to do the right thing once they’re in. How’s that for twisted logic?

We would be a much better society if we took the time to get ‘more of the facts to vet and examine’. Don’t abandon truth, it matters.

Handling the Truth

Do you remember the climactic and contentious exchange between Lt. Daniel Kaffe (Tom Cruise) and Col. Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson) in the 1992 film, A Few Good Men? I’m beginning to think he was on to something.

 

Jessep: You want answers?!

Kaffee: I want the truth!

Jessep: You can’t handle the truth!

Whatever Happened To Truth?

Mark Twain once remarked, “if you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything”. In these days of 24/7 news coverage, LexisNexis research tools, and the ubiquitous microphone, one might ask why anyone wouldn’t take Twain’s advice as untruths can be so easily exposed. Apparently politicians didn’t get that memo as they continue to speak as though no one will know, remember, or think to do some research.