When I was a young, impressionable lad, a visitor to my Sunday School class gave us a little inspirational talk meant to elevate a small group of impressionable young boys. I will never forget what he said about selecting friends. He said, “Seek out people who are honest, humble, and of good character.” This one sentence is simple and succinct, and it has stuck with me all these years later.
I have been lucky to meet many people in Texas, New York, Spain, and California. Whether by luck, wisdom, or the natural course of things, I have found a few honest, humble, and good-character people who became my friends. I have been associated with many other good people, but they have not become my friends for various reasons. There are many reasons for associations not becoming lasting friendships. Often, there is not enough time for associations to become friendships. There might be cultural, social, or economic differences. Sometimes, competitive elements, particularly in the workplace, prevent friendship. However, I tried to follow the advice of my Sunday School mentor. I eliminated associates from my ring of friendship who were dishonest, self-aggrandizing, or of questionable character.
Since my youth, I have long been intolerant of people who distort reality and shade the truth. Even before Carl Sagan described his “baloney detection kit” in his book The Demon-Haunted World, I had a similar approach. Unless patently obvious, I try to verify new assertions that purport to be “facts.” I remain astounded that many people accept silly and easily disprovable “facts” to be true. The internet has made this silliness more widespread. However, there were political and religious charlatans in print, radio, and television long before the internet.
Humble people are self-deprecating and do not take themselves too seriously. Words such as vanity, arrogance, and egotism represent the opposites of humility. Many believe that humility is weakness and boldly exhibit the opposite traits. However, I side with humble people. Humble people are typically stronger and more self-confident than arrogant people. For me, those who are compelled to brag about themselves are exposing their weaknesses and lack of confidence.
Good character is a little more elusive because it tends to be culturally specific. It also overlaps with honesty and humility. The essence of character is associated with morality and one’s relationships with others. Morality is culturally specific because one’s behavior can be perfectly fine in one culture but abhorrent in another. However, there are common threads that are common to all cultures. A “good” person is typically honest, consistent, respectful, accountable, and resilient. A person of questionable character is revealed to have the opposite traits.
Humility and character are a little more complicated but similar to honesty. Clever, deceptive people can pretend to be humble and of good character. Like good actors, dishonest and dodgy people can play believable roles, portraying themselves to be what they are not. Typically, they have a public image that they carefully cultivate and a private self that they scrupulously hide from those outside their immediate circle of associates.
I have never been in a “trusted” circle of deceptive people, but I suspect their association is not one of friendship but of a more transactional nature. The rule of their association is “I will remain associated with you as long as I get what I want from you.”
By definition, deceptive people are masters of deception. They understand what others expect and deliver on those expectations even though their performance is not genuine or authentic. Deceivers understand evolutionary survival mechanisms such as the fear of strangers, the fear of the unknown, and other innate phobias. They use these fears to manipulate others into believing that their lives are in some danger and that they can help relieve their stress. They also amplify and create simplistic black-and-white scenarios to limit the thinking boundaries of their prey. For example, by getting others to believe that the only way to understand a situation is “we-versus-them”, then they have won the mental battle.
Masters of deception also seek out potential cult-like followers who are weak and ground down. Those who seek to deceive often aim to attract those who may feel disenfranchised or marginalized. How can they do this? It is pretty simple. They need to control the information these tyrannized people receive and then deliver a message of resentment about the existing order and the promise that their plight has registered with the powerful deceiver. The assurances exclaimed by the deceiver assured them that they could trust him. Those who believe the deceiver think, “What have I got to lose?”
Those seeking a shortcut to truth generally stumble into a cave of deception and find comfort and relief. They no longer need to struggle with what is real or what to do next. Researching a possible internet hoax or making significant decisions is unnecessary. All they need to do is listen to their puppet masters and follow their lead. Any conflicting information or exhortations from those outside their cave are automatically ignored, even though they may suffer momentary pangs of discomfort (also known as cognitive dissonance). Seeking the truth is a test of intellectual and moral courage, and followers tend not to have those traits in abundance. Taking the easy road to truth is much easier.
The work of reality manipulators never ends. They continuously seek to reframe or control the narrative using their manipulative talents. Examples of their successes are:
- The war with Iraq from 2003 to 2011 was predicated on the distortion of reality by war hawks within the George W. Bush administration. These hawks “proved” that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
- After over 60 years of changing the narrative, the Temperance Movement finally got Congress and the States to create the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, which eliminated the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the USA.
- Before the Civil War, Southern plantation owners swore that their enslaved property were better off as property than as free humans. They believed states could trump federal law based on “States’ Rights.”
- Republican and Democratic administrations forced the USA into a long war in Vietnam based on the Domino Theory.”
- Despite the obvious attack on the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, Trump supporters called it a peaceful sightseeing tour by patriots.
Baloney Detection
The Iraq War is an example of a rush to judgment. The Bush Administration was so frantic to seek revenge against Islamic terrorists that it saw terrorists behind every bush between Washington and Kabul. Before and after the war, it was revealed that Iraq was too poor and undeveloped to create weapons of mass destruction. Given the anxiety of the times, the hawks inside the Bush Administration quickly convinced a sufficient number of Americans and their representatives that war was the only option.
The Temperance Movement’s propaganda campaign was the opposite of the Iraq War. Instead of a rush to judgment, this movement doggedly pursued a war against alcohol over decades. Their propaganda war was multifaceted due to an underlying feminist movement and religious revivalism. Women had virtually no role in government, and one of their only outlets was to create organizations like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Likewise, the Second Great Awakening (could it have been called Make America Awake Again?) was a predominantly Protestant movement to revive religion in America. This religious movement also emphasized the consumption of alcohol as a moral failing and a national sin. The overall war on alcohol proved to be an unmitigated disaster. The 18th Amendment proved to be a lesson in misunderstanding human nature and a great example of the law of unintended consequences.
The institution of slavery is one of the best examples of twisted logic and successful propaganda. Although a vestige of the darkest impulses in human nature, the institution was discredited by all civilized people by 1800. Even slave-owing US presidents recognized the inherent contradictions of the American ideals and the institution of slavery. Slavery continued to exist because of the greed and moral depravity of a small group of slave owners who were able to control the “narrative” in the South. The racism inherent in slavery subtly reverberates in the minds of many even today.
The only challenge to American hegemony after World War II was communism. While communism was an authoritarian alternative to American Democracy, it was never as powerful as the hawks in the Democratic and Republican parties portrayed it. As early as Dwight Eisenhower’s departing message, most of the propaganda against communism and for military aggressiveness came from what Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial Establishment. These forces for increased military spending and foreign involvement were able to brainwash most Americans into believing that they were on the right side of history.
The attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters is the starkest recent example of the triumph of propaganda over reality. At the instigation of the 45th President and his MAGA chieftains, a mob of over 1,000 stormed the US Capitol with weapons and battering rams. They broke down doors and windows to prevent the duly elected 46th President from being certified. We all saw the violence and insurrection in living color. Many of the 1,000 were arrested and convicted of their crimes. This is not a political “belief.” To deny the reality of that day is simply a willful lie.