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By Bruce Thornton
August 13, 2013
The great French political philosopher Jean-François Revel once wrote, “Democracy cannot survive without a certain diet of truth. It cannot survive if the degree of truth in current circulation falls below a minimal level. A democratic regime, founded on the free determination of important choices made by a majority, condemns itself to death if most of the citizens who have to choose between various options make their decisions in ignorance of reality, blinded by passions or misled by fleeting impressions.” If Revel is correct, the rapidly diminishing level of truth in our public discourse suggests that we are in dire straits.
I’m not talking about the sordid lies politicians tell in order to survive. Lechers like Bill Clinton or Bob Filner caught in the act have lied from time immemorial. But that sort of desperate lie, whatever larger damage it may do, is nothing compared to ideological lies of the sort corrupting our society. Those lies reflect peculiarly modern ideas, particularly the notion that since truth is relative, presumed noble aims in the service of some bright future of peace and justice make it acceptable to tell lies or ignore the truth.
The history of communist support and subversion by those living in Western democracies is obviously filled with such lies and liars. Marxism, with its promised future world of equality, peace, and justice, made lying a moral obligation. After all, there were so many “enemies of the people” hindering and resisting the inevitable communist utopia, and standing in the way of a “scientific” political and economic evolution. Of course it was noble to lie away “inconvenient truths” that gave ammunition to reactionaries and fascists who, out of irrational spite or selfishness, were fighting against the paradise to come. Thus a Walter Duranty or a Lincoln Steffens could eagerly lie about the millions starved to death or slaughtered in the Soviet gulags, for nothing, not even the truth, could be allowed to derail the locomotive of revolution steaming toward the perfect world.
[Excerpt]
Read more:
Lies, Democracy & Obama | FrontPage Magazine
“Anything is better than lies and deceit!” -- Leo Tolstoy
August 13, 2013
The great French political philosopher Jean-François Revel once wrote, “Democracy cannot survive without a certain diet of truth. It cannot survive if the degree of truth in current circulation falls below a minimal level. A democratic regime, founded on the free determination of important choices made by a majority, condemns itself to death if most of the citizens who have to choose between various options make their decisions in ignorance of reality, blinded by passions or misled by fleeting impressions.” If Revel is correct, the rapidly diminishing level of truth in our public discourse suggests that we are in dire straits.
I’m not talking about the sordid lies politicians tell in order to survive. Lechers like Bill Clinton or Bob Filner caught in the act have lied from time immemorial. But that sort of desperate lie, whatever larger damage it may do, is nothing compared to ideological lies of the sort corrupting our society. Those lies reflect peculiarly modern ideas, particularly the notion that since truth is relative, presumed noble aims in the service of some bright future of peace and justice make it acceptable to tell lies or ignore the truth.
The history of communist support and subversion by those living in Western democracies is obviously filled with such lies and liars. Marxism, with its promised future world of equality, peace, and justice, made lying a moral obligation. After all, there were so many “enemies of the people” hindering and resisting the inevitable communist utopia, and standing in the way of a “scientific” political and economic evolution. Of course it was noble to lie away “inconvenient truths” that gave ammunition to reactionaries and fascists who, out of irrational spite or selfishness, were fighting against the paradise to come. Thus a Walter Duranty or a Lincoln Steffens could eagerly lie about the millions starved to death or slaughtered in the Soviet gulags, for nothing, not even the truth, could be allowed to derail the locomotive of revolution steaming toward the perfect world.
[Excerpt]
Read more:
Lies, Democracy & Obama | FrontPage Magazine
“Anything is better than lies and deceit!” -- Leo Tolstoy