“There are few things more powerful than the truth. Once you get truth on your side, good things tend to happen.” We talk about truth, teach truth, judge truth, believe in truth.
We might be sworn in, “To tell the truth. The whole truth. And nothing but the truth.” We could be jailed if we don’t tell the truth when being questioned by officials. Contracts are signed on the basis of the truth. Children are punished for not telling the truth.
We expect our friends and neighbors to tell the truth. Our churches say our very souls are cleansed or damaged by our adherence to truth.
The point is that, legally and morally, we say we are hot on the issue of truth, that deeply we believe in and practice truth.
Why, then, are we so content to accept the lies that lubricate these 15 months of government? Fact checkers have found that in his first term, the fascist-in-chief gave 30,573 false or misleading statements. Four years had 1461 days, which equals just over 200 lies or misleading statements per day, no days off.
He’s doing better his second term.
How did that happen? Where is the origin? I have been around a long time, long enough to have experienced Archie Bunker, a fictional character on a weekly television show. For the first time I heard Americans laugh at racism, misanthropy, anti-Semitism, homophobia, name-calling from an all-American character. Week after week, Archie sat in his chair insulting his wife, his son-in-law, his daughter, his neighbors, minorities, educated people, rich people, politics, politicians, liberals. We knew that deep down Archie was a “good guy” but there was no end to his insults – and we laughed. We insisted that, “At least I’m not that bad!”
Why? The writers tapped a difficult part of the American experience. Each of us has had a moment or two (or more) of feeling put down, rejected, insulted, failed, looked over. And it hurts.
It hurts to be overlooked in favor of someone who has more education, a different color skin, more money, a different gender – in a country where we are told that we are all equal. It hurts not to have money to feed your family or to go on vacations or to buy the shoes your kids want – in a country whose economy advertises these in full color.
There are such hurts in most of us, I think. Those hurts carry a load of anger, an anger generally not expressed, but there. Then Archie Bunker happens. He says the things we don’t, or can’t. We laugh because he eases the hurt, makes public an unpopular opinion. We laugh in appreciation for recognizing that American pain, but we’re not “that bad.”
The pain doesn’t end with the end of a sit-com. Other producers see it as a marketable product and the audience can be manipulated. We will buy the product – Donald Trump glorifying in saying, “You’re fired!” A man who had no morality, no skills, no limits, no empathy, no compassion, no language skills, no military training, no world view, who will never be a “good guy”…the New Archie Bunker writ large.
Writ large and marketable. There are still Archie Bunker insults to use, to monetize, to claim success, to lie with and about. Slumped and obese, he sits amid his gold decorations, waves his big pen, insults everyone, smirks, and waits for applause.
Less applause, fewer sponsors, lower ratings.
The show will be canceled.