Truth in America

Have you ever tried looking for truth in modern America? It’s becoming more elusive as time goes by. The latest example was the Casey Anthony trial. It was fraught with so many lies, the jury finally threw in the towel. Everyone lied. Casey Anthony gets the liar of the decade award. Her father comes in a close second. The prosecutor who trumped up chloroform as a murder weapon with a sniffing machine is right in there. Of course, there is the defense attorney accusing the father of incest. Last place is a tie between mom Cindy and brother Lee who looked amateurish but still put on a good show.

Of course the Anthony trial is the most obvious case, but the loss of truth in America is becoming something more insidious. CBS admitted this past week that its broadcast of the 4th of July fireworks from Boston was doctored with phony angles and photo-shopped computer generated backdrops. They photo-shopped 4th of July fireworks and claimed the broadcast was live? Really?

Media is spinning out of control blending truths, half truths, and outright lies into one big ersatz reality show. Sixteen and Pregnant, Say Yes to the Dress, I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant, Hoarders, Real World, Big Brother, the Bachelor all claim to show real life. Are people really that whacked? Are people really that mean and self centered? Is this the kind truth we are teaching our children?

Several movies are being released this week centered on “mean girls.” This is a pervasive theme on television and in the movies. Those of you who teach high school will know what I am talking about. This is what we hold up to be a truth of life? Physical violence, narcissism, collaborative thuggery, tribal girl on girl dancing, bitchiness…is the truth we are teaching young women today? Is a kick to the male groin the solution to everything? The media phony view of life is so pervasive, this how people now act. Doesn’t everybody? As Marshall McLuhan correctly said over 40 years ago, the media is the message.  I might add: any relation to the truth is purely accidental.

Then there is politically correct truth vs. actual truth. Politically correct truth says TSA agents should feel up five year old little girls and remove diapers from a 95 year old wheel chair bound woman dying of cancer. The truth they use is that someone “could” smuggle a bomb on a plane that way....and I "could" lose forty pounds in two weeks. The actual truth is that a terrorist is probably a Muslim male, aged 16 – 35. To a much, much lesser degree, Muslim women of the same age category comes after that. The real truth is a Swede with a wife and three screaming children trying to board a plane is not going to blow it up. But then the real truth is politically incorrect therefore not valid.

Then there is election truth.  President Obama got on national television and actually told seniors that their social security checks would not be in the mail August 3rd if the debt ceiling is not raised.  I know that is a lie.  But more importantly, he knows that is a lie.  Politicians from all political spectrums lie...but the President of the United States making a comment like that is off the charts.

The truth is actually easy to find. What is difficult in America is admitting the truth how uncomfortable that might be. Until we do that, not much is going to get a whole lot better.

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