No less than seventy-five million voters are happily anticipating the turning up the lights in the American theater and are drawing a long awaited, National sigh of relief at the upcoming replacement of the unprecedented, dark ages, rule of the Trump-Pence Administration. Mainstream America is rubbing its wounds while anticipating the restoration of its traditional governance by the predictable rectitude and capability of the coming Administration.
Such sighs of relief, are doubtlessly based upon America’s confident expectation of the restoration of normalcy to the Oval Office, to include the rational acceptance of science in the emergent need for empirical strategies regarding the virulent pandemic and, as well, the existential danger of climate change, the resumption of America’s steady progress in civil rights, and the capable handling of the affairs of State, domestic and international. The return to the American mainstream is also predictably certain to publicly assert our core values of societal and family morality and the traditionally admirable tenets of the “American Way;” embarrassingly and shamefully degraded by their and wayward predecessors. If the written word could convey musical sound, we, in expressing our happiness and relief, would loudly transcribe a dramatic cadenza from Handel’s, ”Music for the Fireworks.”
We are confident that under the new administration America will very quickly regain its good standing and esteem among Nations, damaged by the Administration of the incompetent and ignorant egoist, Donald Trump. Previously good relationships with our traditional allies and NATO will be restored, unsuitable alignment with autocratic opponents will cease, beneficial treaties like the Paris Accords will be re-visited and signed, relations with the EU will improve, and generally, our house, domestic and international, will again be put back in order.
There undeniably remains, however, one profoundly significant immoral an area of intentional damage caused by the shameful and virtually, psychopathic governance of Donald Trump and his minions. This sin, which is of such an egregious and horrendously anti-societal character, that would be manifestly unfair to expect that the new administration, by itself, would be enabled to repair. Such is the virtually unspeakable, evil program intentionally orchestrated by Donald Trump, to affirmatively and viciously attack society’s eternally supporting keystone, the institution of “truth.” Trump’s manifold varieties of wrongful behavior are virtually uncountable, however, the damage from his acts of temporal mischief and general miscreance can be ameliorated in time, by the new administration. By contrast, his “mortally sinful,” effort, to demean and deprecate truth is, metaphysical, and fundamentally societal, such that it would be quixotic to assume that the new Administration, alone, can repair the damage.
Down through the ages, from Paleolithic to smart-phone, reliance upon the truth and accuracy of communication, has been no less than existential. Early man’s warning of a dangerous predator, the presence of a food or water source or safe shelter was vitally relied upon in the effort of survival. The interpersonal interaction of members of the later societies, depended upon the truth and accuracy of reports by societal members regarding matters affecting their early society and its constituent members. In early society, reports of danger, water and food sources, habitable venues, as well as the sharing of learned skills, exemplified the fact that veracity was not only vitally useful, but anthropologically necessary.
In the modern era, truth continues to be a societal necessity in the context of human growth and advancement and is essentially anthropological. Reports of epidemic, natural danger, medical relief, availability of employment, legal advice, current events, advancements in biology, medicine and electronic facility, weather and political reports, investment advice, meteorology and climate change diagnostic results, economic analysis, health statistics and public health reports, actuarial data, and other such useful empirical information are vitally necessary to the survival and management of society.
On the personal, interactive level, veracity is perhaps, the most salient ingredient in any relationship, familial, business- related and social. Reputational standing can effectively be diminished by one instance of prevarication. It is relevant to note that Donald Trump’s serial mendacity became an integral feature of his personal identification by the media and the public. But to be clear, his penchant for predictably false statements were matters of mundane inclination to falsehood; his campaign against “truth” was decidedly more dangerous than his serial mendacity.
On a private, interpersonal level, telling the truth is essential to the survival of any relationship. We define “lying” as misleading another person, who is reliant upon the factual accuracy of a statement of fact. A liar, essentially, being cognizant of the actual truth of his prevarication, is, by that conscious awareness, effectively, a stranger.
As observed, communication is the fundamental epoxy binding the societal community. Trump’s personal prevarications, in most cases, assumedly, can be rectified. His frequent attacks on truth and the responsible free press, in his constant, perverse claims of “fake news”, and otherwise, (undoubtedly motivated by the neurotic defense of his ignorance, his general incapacity to reasonably carry out the duties of his office, and his ultra- sensitive ego) are fundamentally societally damaging wrongs. The cure for the latter, in addition to the creation of an appropriate public model by the ostensible character and actions of the newly elected Administration, is in need of supplementation by members of society, in their individual self -examination, teaching of children and in their day to day behavioral expectations.
-p.
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