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Governments Lie - Democracy in Crisis
BUZZFLASH
READER COMMENTARY
by
Carla Binion
Lie - 1. To make an untrue statement with intent to deceive. 2. To create a false or misleading impression. -- Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition
Some say the Bush cabal has lied about reasons for war. Others say the word "lie" is too strident, although the facts show the administration's actions fit the dictionary definition of lying. If we bleach the English language and call lies "intelligence failures," and (as Donaldo Maceo has said) if "battlefield bloodbaths" become "theaters of operation" and preemptive aggression is called "Operation Iraqi Freedom," this language jiggering is just another lie. Worse than that, it perpetuates destructive myths and holds corruption in place.
Journalist I.F. Stone often spoke before journalism students, offering the following advice: "Among all the things I'm going to tell you today about being a journalist, all you have to remember is two words: governments lie."
Speaking the truth about such facts brings blood flow to the head, energizes, empowers and invigorates the American public and democracy. When an already-powerless public speaks in hushed, intimidated tones, calling governmental lies "intelligence failures" when we verbally sugar coat the pill that poisons us, we the people feel limp and anemic - even more politically debilitated than before we spoke.
In a long ago Independence Day Speech, Frederick Douglass said of his era's tolerating slavery, "At a time like this, scorching iron, not convincing argument, is needed. O! Had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced."
We need the same straightforward enlivened language in the Bush-Cheney era, because what we're witnessing today is the administration's frontal assault on civil liberties, democracy and honest government. Americans need to speak forthrightly and to avoid propping up myths.
This doesn't imply we should wallow in anger or blast people merely to lash out or be unkind. However, the occasional burst of "thunder" and cleansing "stern rebuke" can be a needed healing balm for a country so lost and ailing. Imagine what this country would have been without the periodic fire in the belly of people such as Frederick Douglass. Too much passivity is as corrupting as too much power. Witness what happens when American citizens fail to take their rightful place as owners of their government.
Recently BuzzFlash.com ran an editorial pointing out the fact that some of the Democratic Party leaders, including Tom Daschle and Nancy Pelosi, repeatedly let Bush run roughshod over them. Their refusal to fight for the truth, their reluctance to call a lie a lie does damage to their constituents, the country and the world.
Precision in language matters. When Bush refers to massive anti-war demonstrations as "focus groups" or calls opportunistic war-making "bringing freedom to Iraq" (while undermining freedom and democracy at home) the imprecision props up myths. To live in reality -- that place where a huge demonstration is a huge demonstration, and where opportunistic war-making is opportunistic war-making -- people have to begin to speak clearly - even thunderously, as Frederick Douglass implied.
The philosopher and writer Goethe said, "The style of a writer [or a speaker] is a faithful representation of his mind." A clear, truthful mind produces clear, truthful speech. When America was founded, many of its new political leaders, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Thomas Paine, thought and spoke with clarity and candor as they crafted government of, by and for the people. They acknowledged they were living in a time of crisis, and weighed what needed to be done.
In THE AMERICAN CRISIS, Thomas Paine wrote:
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph…I call not upon a few but upon all; not on this state or that state, but on every state; up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it."
Though the founders were far from perfect, the government they created gradually self-corrected in a number of ways - eventually abolishing slavery, giving minorities the vote and passing laws more equitable for the poor. Civil liberties and rights were bought with the sweat and blood of average Americans who put themselves on the line battling slavery, fighting for suffrage and striving for better working conditions.
Paine called for the people of his time to stand up and fight, even when they were disheartened. Later, anti-slavery groups and others reminded the public to stand up and speak out - to quicken and rouse the national conscience. Today the Bush administration's policies present new threats to democracy, and this generation can either meet the challenge or stay comfortably silent.
I know some of my dear liberal friends, and this includes some Democratic leaders, have said it's somehow "unspiritual" (or impossible) to incorporate a degree of invigorating feistiness with a generally calm, congenial mind. I think it's instead a question of balancing the "gentle rain" and the "thunder," and knowing when either is appropriate.
Democrats in Congress who think they'll accomplish more for the country by pretending lies are "intelligence failures" and appeasing Bush and his anti-democratic, neo-conservative administration are in denial. What's needed now is for the Democratic leadership and all Americans with conscience to get themselves informed enough to notice we're in another time of crisis.
The best way to do that is to acquire news from the wide variety and vast number of newspaper and magazine articles published on the Internet, and to visit the many quality political Internet web sites. As those of us who already get our news online know, you won't be adequately informed if you rely on TV news programs or a single newspaper for information about the damage the Bush cabal is doing and the extent of their manipulation. It would also be helpful for those of us who get our news online to pass it along to offline friends and others.
There are times we good, gentle liberals can sit in the Lotus position, just breathe, and send loving vibes to everybody. But there are other times, when the optimal thing is to get out there and (quoting Frederick Douglass again) - "agitate, agitate, agitate." This is one of those times to agitate.
BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
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