Politicians & Lying
If there is one true thing which could be said of everyone, it is that we have lied at some point in time. “Humankind cannot bear much reality,” wrote T. S. Eliot, and no group of people seem to take that statement to heart more than politicians.
Politicians lie to us; and often. They woo voters with promises they know they cannot deliver on to get elected. This is even truer during wartime. If there is one thing we have learnt from war, it is that the truth is very often the first casualty.
In the January/February 2007 issue of The Atlantic, Carl Cannon writes: At a conference in Tehran in which the Allies discussed opening fronts against Nazi Germany. Churchill stressed the need to keep the Allie’s plans secrets. To Joseph Stalin he said, “In wartime, the truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”
President George W. Bush has been accused of misleading the American public and the wider global community about the reasons for invading Iraq. If the present Bush administration has lied to us, then they are about par for the course. Many, if not all, American presidents have lied to their country (or the global community) at some point in time. I doubt we need to be reminded of: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Land-Lease issue, Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, Watergate, the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon who lied to saved his presidency or Regan who in November 1986, “misled” the public about trading weapons to Iran in return for hostages.
The general consensus (especially during campaign or war time) is that politicians are “unusually good liars”. It is a sad state of human affairs when the perception we have about our leaders is that they are not being completely honest with us. Especially when it comes to issues that directly affect the lives of our families and loved ones, like, the state of the economy, education, health care, housing and the reasons for the high cost of living.
In, The Politics of Lying, David Wise describes it this way, “In place of trust, there was widespread mistrust; in place of confidence, there was disbelief and doubt in the system and its leaders.”
Maybe the electorate needs to examine itself. At the end of the day, they lie to us because if they didn’t we probably wouldn’t vote for them. Maybe the problem lies with the electorate and not the politicians. Maybe T. S. Eliot was right.
Politicians lie to us; and often. They woo voters with promises they know they cannot deliver on to get elected. This is even truer during wartime. If there is one thing we have learnt from war, it is that the truth is very often the first casualty.
In the January/February 2007 issue of The Atlantic, Carl Cannon writes: At a conference in Tehran in which the Allies discussed opening fronts against Nazi Germany. Churchill stressed the need to keep the Allie’s plans secrets. To Joseph Stalin he said, “In wartime, the truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”
President George W. Bush has been accused of misleading the American public and the wider global community about the reasons for invading Iraq. If the present Bush administration has lied to us, then they are about par for the course. Many, if not all, American presidents have lied to their country (or the global community) at some point in time. I doubt we need to be reminded of: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Land-Lease issue, Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, Watergate, the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon who lied to saved his presidency or Regan who in November 1986, “misled” the public about trading weapons to Iran in return for hostages.
The general consensus (especially during campaign or war time) is that politicians are “unusually good liars”. It is a sad state of human affairs when the perception we have about our leaders is that they are not being completely honest with us. Especially when it comes to issues that directly affect the lives of our families and loved ones, like, the state of the economy, education, health care, housing and the reasons for the high cost of living.
In, The Politics of Lying, David Wise describes it this way, “In place of trust, there was widespread mistrust; in place of confidence, there was disbelief and doubt in the system and its leaders.”
Maybe the electorate needs to examine itself. At the end of the day, they lie to us because if they didn’t we probably wouldn’t vote for them. Maybe the problem lies with the electorate and not the politicians. Maybe T. S. Eliot was right.
