I have written about honesty
before. It is, I will admit, one of my
obsessions. Ever since I was a small
boy, I have prided myself on my truthfulness.
Sure, I lie. Sure, I make
mistakes. But in the big things, I try
to be frank. Although this is not always
appreciated, it keeps me emotionally grounded.
This is why it is so painful
for me to see deceitfulness proliferate.
With each passing day, the level of public fraud seems to escalate. Lies are told, and then lies about lies, and
no one seems to care. People just shrug
their shoulders and move onto the next lie.
The first time I heard my
students at Kennesaw State University say that everyone lies and cheats, I was
scandalized. No one in my old
neighborhood would have said any such thing.
They were not saints, but most would have been embarrassed if caught in
a falsehood.
Actually I am sure that most
Americans would still get red in the face if caught lying. The problem is that many politicians and
reporters have no such scruples. No
matter how blatant an untruth, they act as if they had done nothing wrong. They were simply doing their jobs.
We all remember how often
Hillary Clinton was caught lying about her server and Benghazi. We also saw how she was rewarded for her
mendacity at the polls. So why have so
many public figures decided she is the perfect role model? Do they imagine that no one notices?
Consider the slow walking of
the approval of Trump’s nominees for his cabinet. Democratic senators said they were just being
careful. They hadn’t gotten all the
paperwork on the candidates and hence were being prudent. Although this explanation might have been
believed after two weeks, it made no sense after two months.
Or how about the grilling of
Neil Gorsuch during his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court? Before these began, many liberals admitted
that he was an impressive candidate.
Later on these same folks found him to be an enemy of ordinary
people. There was virtually no evidence
to support this contention, but they made the claim anyway.
We are also being treated to
a host of unsupported accusations of treasonous behavior coming from both sides
of the political spectrum, as well as from journalists eager to make a
splash. Don’t those trading in these
speculations realize this grows tiresome?
So why the festival of
dishonesty? Usually people lie to
protect themselves or to advance their interests. They misrepresent reality in order to
persuade others that the facts justify giving the liar what he or she
wants. This is what children do. It is what politicians and reporters do.
Here then is the problem
public figures face. In order to get
elected, candidates and their surrogates have had to super-charge their
promises. Either the government was
going to provide every voter with eternal peace and comfort, or unleashing the
free market would do the same.
Although some improvements
have been made, they never reached the promised heights. Neither liberalism nor conservatism has lived
up to the advance billing. Trillions of
dollars were spent and umpteen laws enacted and still we have not created
heaven on earth.
The inflated American Dream,
the one where we are all entitled to a life of ease and adulation without
having to do anything warrant these, has not been fulfilled. We must still earn our keep by the sweat of
our brows and put up with people who do not recognize our superior worth.
The fact is that our nation
has become so rich that many people have become untethered from reality. They lie to themselves about who they are and
what they deserve and so—surprise, surprise—the politicians and journalists do
the same. When entitlements reach epic
proportions, there is no way to sustain them except with additional lies.
If we want more honesty, we
must therefore begin by being honest with ourselves. We must recognize our limitations, as well as
the constraints imposed by a callous universe.
Life can be good, but only if we acknowledge its realities.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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