Facts, Fiction, Theories and Lies
Facts
are “what truly is” and “what truly was” and which is scientifically or
historically verifiable. Everything else
is merely “theory,” and though something might seem to be logical, believable
or sensible, without irrefutable scientific or historical validation, it
remains something less than “fact.”
Calling it “fiction” implies it was “made up” by someone which might not
always be the case, so let’s call supposed facts which are unproven,
“theories.” That's what scientists do. That is certainly a better
word than “alternate facts” which seems to recognize a thoroughly underserved
credibility.
Some
“theories” or “fictions” are believed to be facts by many. The key word here is “believed,” and
obviously, all religions fall into this category. They require “belief” in their being factual
without irrefutable scientific or historical evidence. That is what faith is all about. This is the only area where fiction or theory
may be granted an exception and accepted as fact, and rather than get into lengthy
discussions of belief with followers of a religion, any religion, it should be
left at that.
Beyond
that, no unproven fictions nor theories should ever be accepted as facts. This is especially true in politics,
government and economics, where many practitioners believe their ideas to be
facts. It extends to marketing, sales,
banking and finance as well, and when a bridge collapses, we realize it extends
to engineering too.
Which
brings us to an interesting treatment of lies, by none other than William
Shakespeare. Read on.
Jack Lippman
Lies and Equivocators (Shakespeare)
In
Scene 3 of Act 2 of Macbeth, a drunken gate keeper at Macbeth’s castle, where
Macbeth has already murdered King Duncan and is going to lie about it, confuses
his job with that of the keeper of the gates of hell, with which Macbeth’s
castle, in view of what has happened there, can readily be confused.
Wondering
who is knocking at the gate, he inquires “Who’s there? Faith, here’s an
equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who
committed treason enough for God’s sake yet could not equivocate to
heaven. O, come in, equivocator.”
(I see these words as referring to someone
who has committed an act of treason, is capable of taking whatever side is
expedient to them but cannot get away with that kind of excuse with God. Shakespeare is philosphizing about this point which obviously relates to his play, Macbeth.)
In
the footnotes in the Folger edition of Macbeth, the following appears in
explanation of what these words are all about. “Equivocator: One who intentionally speaks ambiguously,
either by using words that can be taken more than one way or by mentally
hedging or limiting his or her words.
(Jesuits were charged with equivocation, and many scholars see this
passage as referring to the 1606 trial and execution of a Jesuit, Father
Garnett, whose defense included the claim that, by the doctrine of
equivocation, a lie is not a lie if the speaker intends a second, true meaning
by his words.)”
I
doubt if Donald Trump has ever read any Shakespeare or looked into the Jesuit
doctrine of equivocation (although he did attend a Jesuit college, Fordham
University, for two years before transferring to the University of
Pennsylvania). Nevertheless, his repeated
lying, at least in his mind, is for the ultimate purpose of justifying what,
again in his mind, is a greater truth, his agenda, whatever that might be. Bottom line: the ends justify the means, and
that includes lying or more politely, equvocating. Why, even the
Jesuits did it. This man must go, and
if he were around today, Shakespeare would sign a petition to rid the White House of the equivocator who occupies it. The drunken gate keeper had it right!
The Ugly Place Where All This "Lyin'" Can Lead
While
the Trump team tries to figure out a plausible story as to what actions they
took and when they took them, and then fabricate a slew of backdated
documentation to back up that story, the country looks on with increasing
incredulity. This pertains to his
womanizing as well as to those of his actions which are broadly classified as
“collusion” but might be much less or perhaps much more. The President is not above the law. It is not “his” Department of Justice, nor
“his” anything. The government is “ours”
and we elect a president to run it, serving as its “chief magistrate,” as the
Founding Fathers called the position.
Trump’s
gullible base will believe this all to be part of a conspiracy engineered by
“the dark state,” the “legacy” media and of course the Democratic
sore-losers. These are people who swear
by whatever they see and hear on Fox News.
Truly, they would still back the President, even if he, as he once
boasted, shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
They represent a populist uprising which is
willing to sacrifice the democratic process in seeking solutions for their
problems. These people will present a problem regardless
of what happens to Trump. Some of them
would conceivably demonstrate against the legal ouster of the President. Some of them are armed and claim the Second
Amendment has given them the right to possess arms in the event of just such an
illegal (in their eyes) act on the part of the government. Some State governments might support this
position. There might even be
bloodshed. This is the great danger the
country faces.
JL
Two Operations the President Might Consider on Advice of Counsel
Advice
for the President: Because you are so
good at telling your doctors what to say about your health, why not have them
recommend two surgical procedures for you to undergo. Your lawyers would probably agree. First, would be an operation to remedy a supposed
maxillary disorder requiring your jaws to be wired shut, impairing your ability
to speak. Secondly would be operations
on both wrists for a supposed diagnosis of “carpal tunnel syndrome,” impairing
your ability to use your fingers to send out tweets. Such medical intervention worked well with
the diagnosis of “bone spurs” to keep you out of government service at the time
of the Vietnam War; it can work now with the result, perhaps, of keeping you in
government service in the White House a bit longer until the law finally
catches up with you and boots you out.
JL
Jail Robo Call Offenders and throw away the key
Robot telephone calls are a pain in the ass.
While
I do get a few on my mobile phone where it is a simple task to block that
number from ever reaching me again, I get many, many more on my home number
(which we used to call a “landline” but now reaches me, I believe, through my
internet connection). These annoying
calls far outnumber “real” telephone calls made to my home number, on which my
equipment has the ability to block up to twenty calls. I easily fill up that quota about every ten
days or so and when I try to block a fresh robocall, the message “Blocked Calls
Filled” pops up. I then delete some of
the previously blocked numbers to make space for the new numbers I wish to
block. On the rare occasions when I
attempt to dial one of these numbers, I get a message saying that that the
number has been discontinued.
Unfortunately, if somebody in St. Louis, for example, is actually trying
to reach me, most likely I will not pick up the phone and block the number.
I
recently read that one of the low-life scoundrels who make money from these
robocalls specializes in making them from discontinued local numbers to which
he manages to get access. (He is
currently fighting a potential 120 million dollar FCC fine.) I am less likely to block a number identified
as coming from the town or county in which I live than from a distant out of
state location. Putting my telephone
numbers on government “do not call” lists does not work because these
scoundrels know how to get around that.
Also, I do not know how effective the “call blocking accessories”
available on the internet are, and they are not inexpensive.
I
feel the only solution to this annoying practice if for it to be mandatory that
the culprits, if they are found to be breaking any laws and are convicted,
serve hard time in a state or federal prison, and not be let off easy. Fines, however large, are not enough. Jail should be mandatory. And if there are no laws that they are
breaking, there should be.
JL
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