Radical politics and organized hard-line (fundamental) religions seem to be pretty much constructed on scaffolds of lies. This has, of course, contributed heavily to the great puzzles of the modern world. That hallowed tradition of crucifying truth has insured the growth of indifference to truth, the very principle which was once understood to be the cement that bound differing elements of society in a shared edifice of moral strength.
Once truth is crucified it loses its salvation powers, and attempts to use relics from its corpse to fire-up the devotion of would-be devotees only mocks the living. The consequence of building on a scaffold of lies, even those little white lies, is that those miniscule cracks in truth allows the sewage of prejudice and intolerance to seep in. Indications of wobbly scaffolding and cracked truth then show up in social situations where citizens are made hesitant to demand the truth and denounce what is detectably false. Concessions to those using fabrication in their approach to social problems only makes it impossible to defend the moral distinction between right and wrong.
In the United States today, citizens have witnessed that quandary being increasingly played out over the last few decades in the pursuit of temporal advantages in both the control exercises of politics and religion. Of course each contender claims exclusive access to truth. Unfortunately, people who are led to wonder over who, what or which to believe generally do not stop believing—they simply will themselves to believe anything. That, in turn, weakens social order. There can be no practicable and durable social order without trust, and trust is anchored only in respect for truth—or at least in an agreement on some truth-finding procedures.
The religious-political tyranny practiced in an exercise of half-truths serves only as the expressway into doubt—not only doubt of the subject or issues inspiring the half-truths, but it also motivates reasonable doubts of the ones who persistently mangle the truth. Such is the case today in the United States with what is left of the Republican Party—the radical fringe—that is now lost in an orgy of fabrications and a stubborn refusal to reach beyond their self-serving “party” policies of citizen repression, war mongering and profit gouging.
History has shown—more than a few times—that when fundamentalism (political or religious) attains power, that power is used to persecute everyone not of their narrow mindset—i.e., their conviction which openly rejects the truth of the Creator’s partiality to a wide diversity of life expressions.
Any moral and just governing of the masses can function only where there is practiced mutual respect, compliance to just laws, fidelity to contracts made, compassion in judgment, and the tolerance of non-threatening life styles. All these are really characteristics of a devotion to truth.
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