DISCOVER CHALLENGE | Conventional Wisdom
Conventional wisdom at this point in time is anything but wise. This is officially a rant. I don’t do it often, but just sometimes … well … I need a good rant and here it is.
I’m hearing a lot of “give him a chance” and “maybe he’ll surprise you” and “you might as well get used to it.” Sometimes, but not always followed by “just get over it.”
I’m not getting over it. I’m not even trying to get over it. He may surprise me, but I doubt it will be a happy surprise. So far, at every turn, he has proved not merely as bad as I thought he could be, but worse than I feared — and that is bad. Really. Very. Bad. I believed after he was the leader of this country, some sense of responsibility would set limits on his egoism and immorality. That, as the president of all the people — even the ones who didn’t vote for him (which is most of us) — he would display a modicum of concern for the consequences of his actions. After all, the future of the planet is at stake.
I suppose he has surprised me. He is much worse than I believed possible. This president actually seems to think reality is whatever he says it is. Not what we see with our own eyes, but what he tells us is true. Alternative facts. ALTERNATIVE FACTS? Oh, you mean lies.
Humpty Dumpty is President of the United States.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean —neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
— LEWIS CARROLL (Charles L. Dodgson), Through the Looking-Glass, chapter 6, p. 205 (1934). First published in 1872.
I know governments lie to their citizens. They always have. They spin facts until they are so dizzy, they fall over in a faint … but generally, when there’s actually film of the event, they cave in and admit that something happened. Not this president. Uh uh. This one assures us that what we see is not real. He will tell us what is real, what to believe. If he says the sun is shining when rain was falling, we must say “YES, it was the sun because HE said it was the sun. The lying media was dropping wet stuff to confuse us.”
In a world where the chief executive of the world’s most powerful nation lies about everything — and seems to not even know that there is such a thing as facts and truth — everything is up for grabs. Nothing is real, nothing is true. All spin, no facts. Reality has been obliterated. From the weather, to his relationship with the security services, to his tax returns, to his cozy relationship with Vlad, it’s all spinning like a top. From this conventional wisdom, deal me out. I’m not getting used to it, over it, or giving it more chances. Hell no!
I’m angry and deeply disturbed by what I see. I’m watching a lifetime of trying to make the world a little better being erased.
I’m not going to accept it. Never. I refuse.
