The Lies That All Politicians Must Repeat
April 24, 2012
Today’s winner: “The TSA is here to protect you.”
There are many other lies that all politicians must repeat:
“There is no inflation.”
“Americans pay their taxes voluntarily.”
“Our invasion and occupation of Iraq was a success.”
“We must Stay the Course in [fill in the blank country] to honor those who have sacrificed their lives for freedom in [fill in the blank other country], lest they die in vain.”
When I was very young, I asked my father, “When politicians lie, is it because they believe it, or because they think it’s what we want to hear?
“We won’t know for sure until the Last Judgment,” he replied.
Some call it cognitive dissonance, some hubris, others Doublethink. Augustine called it libido dominandi.[City of God I, Preface]. Saint James called it superbia vitae (I James 2:19).
As we survey the savagery, the abuse (See TSA, above), and the wreckage, remember Solzhenitsyn: “The truth will make you free, but lies will always bring violence in their wake.”
The Best of Christopher Manion
Report From New York