"I Am Not A Liar," He Lied
Dr.
Gerry Lower, Keystone, South Dakota
One of Richard Nixon's most memorable lines was "I am not a crook," a
statement made in denial. George Dubya Bush's parallel line would be "I'm
not a liar," a statement likewise made in denial. Lying and denying seems
to have become the rule rather than the exception among latter day American
presidents. Unless one wants to be remembered as a liar, there is little option
after lying but denying.
John Moyers has recently legitimized use of the "L" word in the
American press and he has provided a summary statement of the media's coverage
of Bush's lies (In Bush We Trust, TomPaine.com,
This makes Bush all the more difficult to believe. Why on earth would a man
actively support a world that makes him into a despotic liar, albeit it a rich
and powerful liar. Does he not understand that once one lies, one has to live
that live for the duration? Does he not care about the only life he will ever
live on this planet? Will his god let him pass heaven's gates with such a load
of baggage? Certainly, one does not get remembered kindly by the people for
lying to them.
The only possible conclusions are that 1) Bush does not possess adequate
capacity for introspection and doesn't even know that he is lying, or 2) Bush
simply does not believe that he is lying, he believes what he wants. Either
way, of course, he is still a liar. Given George's limited awareness and knowledge
of the world, it is clear, in Bush's case, that "not lying" is
something different from "telling the truth." It is difficult not to
lie if one does not know very much truth.
While that may be just two sides of the same thing, i.e., ignorance, there is,
nevertheless, a devoutly religious and capitalistic sense in which Bush is not
a liar at all. Welcome to neofundamentalist right wing
With regard to the lies a nation will tell itself, it was back in the 1950s
when Madison Avenue went "psychological." All of a sudden ads did
more than announce and describe a product and its price, they did more than
employ a bit of hype and hoopla to sell product (traits around from the
beginning). In this brave new Mad ad world, the use of certain products (e.g.,
cigarettes, cosmetics, drugs) would actually make you what you want to be in
life (a macho Marlboro Man, a thinly smoking Eve). All of a sudden, certain
products could make your personal dreams come true. It all started with that
famous one-liner, "Next time, light up a Lucky."
The good old boys on Madison Avenue were on a roll and consumption in
Thanks to capitalism's inherent desperation (there's never enough money, you
know), the American business world was introduced to the use of psychological
manipulation, subtle lies and half truths in order to pursuasively mislead the
customer into a sale, an approach now accepted as something of the norm. You
know, tell them what they want to hear, "blow 'em a little smoke."
Smoke is precisely what it is, in the sense that there is no necessary
relationship between what a given product is said to do for you and what it
actually does for you. That this approach has even defiled the notion of ethics
in American medicine is of no concern to the marketplace (Cancer Doctors
Profiting From Drugs, Robert Bazell, MSNBC, June 27, 2003). Even worse are the
coverup lies about negative benefits. The prescription drugs promoted on
television are simply miraculous to behold, until one gets to the listing of
contraindications and side effects. As for side effects, the only thing that
the Marlboro Man ever got from being "psyched" into smoking was
bronchogenic carcinoma.
In this world of American business fantasies, George Bush is not a liar. He is
just a "good old boy" in business, now the anointed point man for a
religion-based capitalism that has traditionally thrived on lies. It could not
function without them. In the same way, an Enronized corporate America has come
to thrive on insider trading and "influence-for-a-fee" government. It
could not function without them. As a result, the Bush administration is having
a difficult time dealing with the historic criminality of religion in promoting
political violence in the world and with the exposed criminality of once proud
corporate supporters at home.
The religion beneath this fiscal self-righteousness (wherein
"compassionate" conservatives see themselves and their cronies as
being above the law) is likewise based on a world of lies, the biggest one
being the lie of "external authority," the lie that the causes of
disease, poverty, injustice and violence in the world are not earthbound, the
lie that kept the people in check throughout the eras of imperialism,
colonialism and now crony capitalism. America's founding fathers knew better,
of course, and that is why they made effort to eliminate religious superstition
from public discourse and decision-making.
Within Bush world, where religion and state are one, lying is not lying, it is
defending, by whatever means necessary, the sole source of goodness in the
world, i.e., the fiscal and power status quo. There are no standards of truth
or morality in Bush world outside of "winning" each and every
conflict, maintaining control of the people's reality and the people, their
resources, their time, their money and their souls.
There is no need for knowledge and truth in Bush world. Indeed, would that not
be a potentially terminal consideration for liars? Bush world is thusly defined
on the fly (or is it on the run?). The Bush regime has little if any ability to
act with knowledgable foresight and it is in possession of nothing resembling a
well-considered vision, certainly not beyond their dreams of fiscal hegemony.
This lack of vision restricts them largely to responding to events after the
horrible fact rather than acting with a visionary plan allowing control of
events up front. Welcome to newly "liberated" Iraq.
Bush world depends entirely on what portion of the American public Bush is able
to coerce into abiding his religion based attitudes and approaches, what
portion of the American public will continue to accept that the joy of
executions and preemptive bombings is the just reward of "Christian"
compassion. Bush's entire neo-imperialist agenda hangs on how long he is able
to keep the people from thinking for themselves, as to what constitutes
Christian values and what does not, as to what constitutes fairness and
equality and Democracy and what does not, as to what constitutes truth and what
constitutes lies and political fabrications.
The media are currently occuppied "parsing the difference between a lie
and an exaggeration, a spinmeister and a fabricator" (Shame on Us, Ellen
Goodman, Boston Globe, June 26, 2003). This is all essentially another media
sidetrack on issues that have long been resolved.
There simply is no parsing to be done. Thinkers from Socrates to Alfred North
Whitehead have pointed out the obvious, that there is simply no difference
between a lie and a half truth, a fabrication or a distortion, and there never
has been. One sees the same end result, regardless, if the fabrications and
distortions are able to accomplish the same objectives as a few
"good" lies (A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, Josh Marshall, TheHill.com,
June 23, 2003).
Both Science and Democracy rely entirely upon the honest human truth. That is
one of the great beauties of Science. If you lie about something of
significance in the literature, you will be found out, you will be exposed, you
will be dismissed. There is no escape. So, ought it be in American Democracy,
no escape from lies, no escape for liars. George Bush is not only an
"American" liar but an ill-advised one at that. We really ought
impeach liars in America. They are not very good for national health.
Even though Bush has no reservations about executing the mentally-challenged,
any just and fair impeachment proceeding aimed at Bush ought not impose harsh
punishments, especially in light of Bush's limited intellectual grasp of
Democracy and his limited comprehension of the world.
In keeping with the values of nascent Christianity, in seeking a compassionate
justice, the most appropriate impeachment sentence for Bush and his cronies in
crime (from Cheney to Kenneth Lay) would be to remand every one of these people
to a lifetime of menial labor, under supervision, at minimum wage, no other
options, end of discussion. Now that is creative justice, to see these
self-righteous liars live out their lives as did the people whom they have
oppressed and exploited for generations, all in the name of capitalistic
notions of fairness and progress. That was all a lie, if you think about it.
Dr. Gerry Lower
421 Old Cemetery Road, PO Box 906
Keystone, South Dakota 57751
1.605.666.4336