I started a post yesterday afternoon regarding Senator Kerry’s financial holdings and yet another of his staff’s PR gaffes. Additionally, I taped his DNC address for future fisking analysis.
However, upon further consideration, I’m asking myself: “What’s the point?” All the information regarding the senator’s military service, his actions upon leaving the service, his senate voting record and the financial records of his family are readily available at one’s fingertips, if one is searching for them.
It’s not like it was back in the sixties when Roger L. Simon and his late father came to ideological blows over the Vietnam War. It’s not like it was when only the three network TV stations and the major American newspapers supplied information on what was going on in the world.
These days, if you don’t know, you simply don’t want to know.
Why did I give up? It’s pretty simple. I got tired of fighting a losing battle.
Some months back, I borrowed the title of M. Scott Peck’s book, People of the Lie, to point a finger towards people who lie so well and so often that they begin to believe the hype themselves. Let’s call them Group A.
Group A has spawned another group; not ideological offspring per se, but servants. This second group isn’t in the habit of creating lies, however this group--let’s call them Group B—believes what Group A says, at least under certain conditions, which are spelled out in the next paragraph. It can even be said that the members of Group B are often the arms, legs and mouthpieces of Group A, albeit often (usually) unwittingly.
Group B doesn’t have the time, inclination or ability to check the veracity of the assertions of Group A or anyone else’s assertions. All a Group B member knows is that the assertions of Group A fit neatly with his/her own convictions, beliefs, pre-conceived notions and feelings.
What happens when a member of another group— call it Group C—comes along and provides the Group B member with a well-documented fact that doesn’t fit or contradicts the supplied Group A “knowledge?” Two things can occur.
1. The Group B member says something along the lines of this: “Wow! I didn’t know that. How did you find that out?”
or…
2. At top volume, the Group B member calls the Group C member a liar, enraging the Group C member and severely damaging—if not destroying--the links of communication between the two people. (You remember what a liar is, right? It’s one who asserts something known or believed by that one to be a falsehood.)
Guess which one happened to me yesterday.
As it stands, I’m merely set to see the results of the November election. I don’t think that the aftermath will be pretty, regardless of the result. I’ll be keeping watch and praying.
Later…
My dad just called me to regale me with stories of being a Republican in a Democrat family (He and Mom, my sisters and most of that side of the family live in New Mexico.) It served to cheer me up a bit and to remind me that I’m not alone. Thanks, Dad.
