The Opposite of Everything Is True

A few years ago I read a book about denial by William H. Crisman. It's the kind of denial involved with substance abuse and its effects on people. The title of the book was The Opposite of Everything Is True. The premise is that if an alcoholic's lips are moving, he's lying. Likewise, many of the people living with an alcoholic lie all the time without really knowing it.

That title came to mind this week when I read the news about our current administration in Washington. Let me just name a few things that brought this topic to mind. The Pentagon admitted this week that yes there was desecration of the Quran at Guantanamo, just like Newsweek said there was. The same administration that reacted so indignantly about the weekly magazine having gotten its story wrong. It was wrong all right, but only in the smallest of details. Instead of flushing the Quran down a toilet, the guards kicked it and put urine on it. Somehow, I fail to see much difference.

The Pat Tillman story finally came to light. He wasn't killed by enemy fire in a battle. He was killed by friendly fire. The Pentagon not only lied about the circumstances of his death, but they tried to force the Tillman family to go along with the false story. Did the President's Press Secretary indignantly demand that the Pentagon be punished, like it did with Newsweek? No, he didn't. Why was our own media in the U.S. so quiet about it? Have they sold themselves out to the administration for access?

Jessica Lynch's capture was another of the Pentagon's fabrications. She didn't go down firing like we were told. Her "rescue" filmed through night vision goggles had all the makings of a Hollywood feature film. However, the truth according to doctors at the hospital that was raided was that there were no Iraqi forces anywhere to be found there. We were treated to nothing but the Pentagon's "cinema unverite."

The President continually tells us that there is a crisis with Social Security and that his private accounts will head that off. First, the private accounts won't help the solvency of Social Security, and second, there's not a real crisis. He's just lying again.

This week we found out who Deep Throat was/is, and his revelation was all the more poignant because we so badly need a new Deep Throat. This administration is worse than Nixon's. Nixon tried to cover up a minor burglary. George W. Bush took us to war on a lie, and his people have continued to distort the truth ever since. If the U.S. House of Representatives can vote article of impeachment against Richard Nixon for Watergate, and if it can do the same to Bill Clinton for ejaculating on a blue dress, then surely they can vote articles of impeachment against George W. Bush for taking our country to war on false pretences. Sometimes, it seems the bigger the lie, the better chance you have of getting away with it.

We have reached a point in America that we are like the citizens of the old Soviet Union. The knew perfectly well that their government never told them the truth. The came to understand that you never believe whatever was printed in the media. That kind of cynicism led the Soviet government to pretend to tell the truth, and the Soviet pretended to believe them. I believe that's where we are right now. There is nothing reliable coming out of our government, and there is no watchdog media to hold them accountable. The whole system has been corrupted.

So, what do we do at this point? William Crisman's solution was to quit lying about what's happened, and to quit believing the lies of others. I would say it's time we really acknowledged that The Opposite of Everything Is True.
- posted by Marcos @ 8:31 PM (0) comments