The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
In 2024, half the world’s population will have voted in national elections. More political lies will have been told in this year than in any year of human history, because lying has become more of a means of winning votes than ever before. But why?
No doubt as long as politicians have sought the votes of their populace, some of them have lied to the people. However, most politicians are honest. Nevertheless, more politicians are now resorting to lies, because lies and liars are more politically successful than ever before. They are convinced of it, watching the victories of other prevaricating politicians. These devious candidates have learned that lying pays political dividends when a majority of voters can be taken in by lies.
But how could anyone allow themselves to be fooled by falsehood? The most salient explanation is that too many people are too little educated to sort out truth from falsehood. In simpler times, for instance before World War II, governments did not lie to their people nearly as much, and therefore the people themselves were less likely to lie. Since then, especially because of so many recent wars, some but not all of “the people” came to distrust or mistrust their governments. In general, they were the better educated ones. Uneducated voters were told to distrust the elected officials in order for them, the unscrupulous politicians, to be elected.
The poorly educated ones had previously trusted their governments simply because they were the government. In a kinder, gentler world, that worked. Now, in a much more complex and devious world, the people cannot count on politicians to tell the truth when they campaign.
It is said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Liars quote that statement as often as do truthtellers. Reading between the “lines” is sometimes more important than reading the lines themselves. “That is just a line” usually means, “That is a lie,” but unless you are taught to differentiate between truth and falsity, you may never be able distinguish the one from the other.
Some people are so gullible that they are incapable of sorting out what is false from what is true. They are more apt to “fall” for lies. Clever politicians who choose to campaign on lies know how effectively to do that, and therefore they spend more time politicking among the lower classes and the less educated to seek votes. “The great unwashed” is a derogatory term for such folks. They are described as unwashed because they usually are both poor and poorly educated. In their campaigning, these politicians attempt to win by subterfuge, not by appealing to reason, honesty, and seeking the greatest good for the greatest number.
There is an even more important rationale why current dishonest politicians use lies as their most persuasive stratagem. They are seeking to become autocrats. Most of us learned that by being assigned 1984 and Animal Farm in high school. (Some school districts have banned those books from the curricula in their schools. Those school boards have become tragically misled by autocratic national, state, county, or municipal politicians.)
This year, all around the world, would-be autocrats have seduced gullible voters into casting ballots for charlatan politicians. In the United States, a would-again-be-president and many members of his party are using The Strategy of Liars and Lies to pervert democracy by making their strongest appeals to the generally less well educated half of the electorate. If they succeed, the oldest large democracy in the world will have become captive to a man who has frequently boasted, by both hints and overt promises, that he will become a dictator if he is elected. In that, ironically, he does not lie. Why don’t half of the American people believe that? In isolated instances, incurable narcissists don’t lie. Think, people, think!
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.