A defense attorney applied for a position in a large firm. He was one of three applicants on the short list. All three were asked the same question, “How much is 2 plus 2?” The “correct” answer was not 4. The third applicant, when asked “How much is 2 plus 2?,” pulled down the blinds, dimmed the lights, and replied, “How much do you want it to be?” He was hired.
The old joke, not intended to impugn the legal profession, is more sad than funny owing to its universal applicability today. Do I exaggerate? Purchase a 2 by 4 stud from any home improvement store and measure it.
Some justify “being loose with the truth” as an extension of Situation Ethics, or “flexibility in the application of moral laws according to circumstances.” Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991), founder of Situation Ethics, would frown on this example unless it could be shown, an unlikely case, that it was the “most loving” choice. His 1966 book, Situation Ethics, the New Morality, was widely acclaimed because it “legitimized the general post-war dissatisfaction with authority.”
Those who describe the rapid decline of American culture correctly identify our time as the “Post-Truth” era. The subjective or situation of “truth” in the employment example is ancient history compared to the truth-telling alterations occurring around us today.
In a recent US Senate confirmation hearing a Supreme Court jurist could not define “woman”. I shuddered, wondering how the jurist would answer the question, “What is truth?” I was reared by a caring mother who detested lying, used the George Washington cherry tree story as praise-worthy as she bound me to the truth. Imagine my shock when I recently found a postmodern book declaring our first president as a man prone to chronic lying and worse.
Postmodernism, little more than a sophisticated version of anti-authoritarianism, holds there is no real truth, and it criticizes objective reality. Postmodernism is difficult to define because it is “a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that challenge the ideas and values of modernism.” Modernism, a period from 1900 to WW II, was similar to Postmodernism but without its steroids. Modernism “sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life.”
The old byline of the Atlanta Journal, “Covers Dixie like the Dew,” is a relevant metaphor for Postmodernism: its clandestine influence is widespread, but significantly ignored. Most Americans – too busy getting on with life – mistakenly believe that “Things just change.” Before it is too late, we must realize that things are being changed, public opinions, and culture are specifically shaped by those whose objectives are not necessarily in the best interest of the nation.
Honest, rational, fair-minded people, confused by the gaiety, carnival-like, and costly political conventions, shake their heads in disbelief. Political campaigns expenditures are staggering. “No holds barred” media interviews and disinformation serve to eliminate capable candidates who sense character assignations soaring.
Simply put, truth has been trampled by the media in all its dimensions.
Modern media outlets are driven by innate greed. Commercials dominate and control all forms of media. Lazy citizens ‘learn’ by listening and watching, not by reading, studying, and critically thinking. TV commercials are collectively as long or longer than program content. When TV credentialed guests have important reports to make, they are stopped by hosts who say, “Sorry, but our time must limit you to yes or no responses.”
Widespread hostility and hatred leads to violence and death. Love, commanded in the first of the Ten Commandments, leads to life.
There is agreement from scholars to street people that America is watching an unprecedented striptease act by Lady Justice and her minions. Her blindfold is tossed to the crowd. Her breast plate of truth is removed. Soon the few remnants of morality will drop to the floor while half the nation whistles and applauds. The other half of the nation ineffectually complain with meaningless words. The applause vigorously drowns out the silence.
Political parties have attached themselves to Postmodernism. The result of this marriage is a double whammy: intellectual destruction of truth and frightening destruction and theft of property.
Pew Research, a nonpolitical group, recently reported the following comparison of Democrats and Republicans:
- “Nearly half of Democratic voters (46%) identify as something other than Christian.” “The share of Democratic voters who are religiously unaffiliated has roughly doubled since 2008, from 18% to 38%.”
- “More than four-in-ten Democratic voters (44%) are Hispanic, Black, Asian, another race or multiracial. This is roughly double the share in 1996 (23%.”)
- “Democrats overwhelmingly say abortion should be legal.”
- “Democratic hostility toward the Republican Party has risen in recent decades.”
- “Democrats overwhelmingly dislike Trump.”
- “Republican voters are overwhelmingly White, though less so than in the past.”
- “Around eight-in-ten Republican voters (81%) identify with a Christian denomination, compared with 67% of all registered voters.”
- “Republicans overwhelmingly see illegal immigration as one of the top problems facing the country.”
- “Republicans are very negative about the state of the U.S. economy.”
- “Republicans are more divided over abortion than Democrats are.”
- “Republican hostility toward Democrats has increased significantly in recent decades.”
Christians are taught to love each other, including those who oppose them. If Pew Research has it correct, the predominantly Christian Republicans should and must not treat Democrats with significantly increased hostility. There is no room for hypocrisy in those who follow and bear the name of Jesus Christ who, the epitome of love, identified himself as “the truth, the way, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6.
Jesus spoke these words to comfort those whose hearts were troubled. Love has everything to do with truth, finding one’s way, and life itself. Examples of the validity and power of love described by Jesus and lived by Jesus touched my heart as I was privileged to associate with Soldiers under stress. I wrote about how we can love like Jesus in my book, Kindness, Dignity, and Respect; Kind Ways to Dignify, Respect, and Love One Another, 2023.
Our moral duty to vote was won by the sacrificial cost of American lives on the fields of unfriendly strife. Freedom is not free. It must not be taken lightly, but with love and truth – never with a heart damaged by hostility or hate.
Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.
.