NATION OF LIARS

freeacre

Charles Eisenstein’s essay, “The Ubiquitous Matrix of Lies” has haunted me for days. He writes regularly on the “Reality Sandwich” site, and was picked up last week on Carolyn Baker’s “Speaking Truth to Power.” Eisenstein is quickly becoming one of my favorite contemporary writers because I find his thinking so original, compassionate, and profound.

I think he has nailed perhaps the most important and yet most overlooked element of our deteriorating culture and empire – the debilitating effect of living and functioning in an atmosphere of falsehood. He begins with advertising slogans. “Coors Rocks Harrisburg.” Does anyone believe that Coors rocks Harrisburg? Of course not. Then there is the labeling of malls and neighborhoods. “Colonial Park Mall,” for instance. Neither colonial nor park, it is jut a boring boxy edifice. Needless to say, its food mart is not a “Café’ in the Park,” either. These are seemingly trivial examples. But, multiply them by how many advertising slogans and misdirecting labels that surround us each day, and begin to see how the illusions (or delusions) are created.

And, that is just the beginning. Eisenstein writes, “We live in a ubiquitous matrix of lies, a sea of mendacity so pervasive that it is nearly invisible. Because we are lied to all the time, in ways so subtle they are beneath conscious notice, then the most direct lies are losing their power to shock us.

The most shocking thing about the lies of the Bush administration was that those lies were not actually shocking to most people. Why do we as a society seemingly accept our leaders’ gross dishonesty as a matter of course? Why does the repeated exposure of their lies seem to arouse barely a ripple of indignation amount the general public? Where is the protest, the outrage, the sense of betrayal?

It is certainly not to be found in the person of Barack Obama. Just as there is little difference between Coors and Miller, so also is there little difference in the policies of Bush and Obama. I realize that this statement will provoke outrage from many of my readers. Sure, there are some differences between them – enough to establish Obama as a new brand – but the basic course of empire, of finance, the military, medicine, law, education, of the defining institutions of our society remains unchanged.”

“A new brand” – ouch. He’s right, though. If Obama et al were really devoted to “change” the way he said that he was, we’d be seeing brokers and bankers frog-stepped out of their offices in handcuffs and indicted for fraud and corruption – not handed billions of dollars worth of taxpayer’s money. No change is required if there are no negative consequences for criminal behavior.

Same goes for war crimes. “American do not torture,” Bush told us. Meanwhile, Iraqi men and boys were rounded up, beaten, raped, water-boarded, electrocuted, threatened with the rape and sodomy of their wives and children, and on and on with the administration’s full knowledge and consent. “They hate us for our freedoms,” Bush told us. Yeah, right.

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were begun in order to gain permanent access to the last large stores of oil in the world, not to find Osama Bin Laden or Al Qaeda or spread democracy or to find the imaginary “weapons of mass destruction.” What a load.

Even 911 was a lie. Watch “Loose Change” on YouTube or the more recent Italian made “Zero: an Investigation into 911.” Just jaw-dropping.

The fact that subterfuge on this scale can be accomplished and maintained for years points to something even greater. It can’t be beaten by whistle blowers or courageous reporting. The truth is out there. Nothing is changing. Why not?

Eisenstein says that words don’t mean what they used to anymore. Because we have been continually lied to and so many things have been misrepresented, the words themselves are reduced in their impact on us. I would submit that it goes even further. I’d say that is goes back to being propped up in a baby rocker in front of the television so you can watch Sesame Street and learn to count with Count Dracula. And, it continues with being herded into daycare with your peers and being told vacuous bullshit all day. Then, you graduated on to public school where your teachers were forced to only repeat politically correct crap to you and you came to despise them. Then you went home and turned on the tube and watched dramas based on people lying and betraying each other and getting into trouble and then ducking the consequences. In between, there were the relentless commercials spewing countless lies and misrepresenting reality. And, when you weren’t watching TV, you went on dates that were just one exercise after another in manipulation and misrepresentation or whatever it took to get laid. Then you grew up and got a job that required you to say whatever was necessary to fit in, keep the boss happy, please the customers, or sell the product. Then you fill out the paperwork on your tax forms, your mortgage documents or whatever assorted forms with whatever contrived bunch of numbers and information that they want to hear or whatever you can get away with. Then, you take a break and watch “reality” t.v. , which, of course, is totally contrived.

In short, this is a nation of liars, and we are living in a putrid toxic soup of lies, falsehoods, and hypocrisies that corrupts and diminishes everything that it touches. Our word as a nation and for most individuals has no authority anymore. We are an idiocracy. Babbling morons … present company excepted, of course.

I believe that until we get our heads around this idea, and change over to a radical use of honesty, we will never heal what ails us as a nation and a people.

I think we lost heart when the Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King were killed, and while Vietnam dragged on an extra ten years after everyone knew it was sick and wrong. I believe that we have been damaged, wounded by the ruthless deceit of our government and those in financial power. We suffer many of the same symptoms as battered children or spouses. There is confusion where there should be outrage. There is denial where there should be curiosity. There is passivity where there should be action. There is a curious detachment to the world. There is an alarming dependence of drugs to assuage the psychic pain of a society driven to madness by words that have no connection with anything real. Lying not only wounds those lied to, it damages those who lie as well.

For that reason, I believe that the structure of our campfire is a small step toward healing. The native Americans worked this system out over the millennia to communicate with each other and foster wisdom and a sense of belonging. It is a great gift to us all:

Sit in a circle. Pick up the Talking Stick. While you have the stick, speak what is true for you. Nobody interrupts. Nobody contradicts or evaluates. Nobody tries to sell anything. Everyone listens. Then, somebody else picks up the stick. They say what is true for them. It might be different. That’s OK. Each person is heard and each person is respected. Those at the campfire are free to change their minds as they listen to differing perspectives. All are enriched and empowered by the process.

I think that the results of our campfire conversations are self-evident in the pictures that we are now sharing with each other. They are tangible evidence of the truth of our words. We have evolved together from ineffectual words and bitching about things to taking real steps towards creating a different paradigm. Like planting seeds, canning tomatoes, paying off the credit cards, turning off the TV, making real connections with each other, stocking up on necessities just in case, helping others in our communities.

Our Word is the source of our authority and personal power. The more truthful we are, the more respect we engender and the more confidence we have. If we are going to resist the tide of corruption and lies and create a better place after the collapse, it will require a radical commitment to honesty in all things. Without that, we will only be kidding ourselves.

Aho (I have spoken. The stick is passed.)

Here are the latest pictures of the garden. Things are progressing well. FINALLY it has warmed up and the greenery is responding. If the weather doesn't catch us off guard, we should have a productive year.