It was only fortunate happenstance that on one of our prospecting excursions into the ancient realm of etymology, we struck gold. The subject of our casual investigation was the celebrated word “sincerity.”
As appears, the furniture makers in ancient Rome, who possessed less than the requisite skill in the crafting of furniture (but not guile), would employ a waxy-type glue to hold their furniture together and give the false appearance of first class quality. The authentic artisans, however, were able to so craft their products that they fit and dovetailed together permanently, without the artificial device of glue or wax. These craftsmen had the enviable reputation of being “sine cere” or, without wax (sincere).
Sincere is a commendable adjective, awarded to those persons manifesting true intention and practicing legitimate acts, entirely devoid of misrepresentation or guile. One may necessarily assume that the people, with whom he is in close relation, for moral or practical reasons, would refrain from making misleading statements or performing deceitful acts; when the exception does occur, it is uniformly condemned as unnatural or perverse.
Practical experience has schooled us in wise caution regarding declarations of politicians, the representations of salesmen, and where appropriate, statements of officials and politicians; these conceivably would wisely merit some further thought or investigation.
However, the media, the sole institution which provides primary and effective protection to the individual citizen and to society, in general, has historically, proven itself to be a reliable, consistent and dependable source of truthful information.
Regrettably, with the ascendance to office of the current administration, a novel and defensive maneuver has been conjured up; the oxymoronic word for this perverse designation is “fake news.” This administration, bent upon attempted denial of wrongdoing, obvious and undeniable conflicts of interest and sheer incompetence, would deny media revealed malfeasance and miscreant acts, by the tactical defense of fake news. This most obvious artifice is a cheap and obvious ploy; but the danger is in its possible acceptability by the gullible, low information, flat earth portion of our population which was successful in electing this Kafka-like administration.
It is essential that we continue to maintain our proven confidence in our legitimate media, as well as to explicitly and loudly voice our opposition to guile and deception when confronted with it. We also can take heart that this shameless administration will wax, but wane, in the next few years.
-p.
plinyblogdotcom 