Political correctness is said to be taboo now, so I am going to speak freely:
There are times where a proper critique of culture as it is is the most important thing for that culture to move forward, and our society here in the 21st century with its confusing rhetoric, violent opposition and boundless possibility is at that place in spacetime.
With technologies like machine learning and Crispr CAS9it is true that anything you think will soon be possible. (Crispr CAS9 is a technique to edit genes that is highly precise and very cheap.)
Even if you disagree with the previous statement both technologies will drive the world in new directions, and taking them serious is the most important mental endeavor any of us can endure, let us not lie to ourselves and our families about what is here and what is possible.
From here we can see the singular habit that needs to be critiqued here in society at large, which is the willingness to not know or the blatant denial or manipulation of the truth.
Each way is a form of lying, and our society has become built upon that very verb.
We are lost unable to understand the story because so many people are saying whatever they want, for any reason they choose.
So what then is the solution to this liar’s paradox we find at the heart of a world that needs fully informed citizen?
Murder the liars?
Punish non-truth tellers?
The obvious answer is no.
Then how, if it is not a witch hunt I am calling for am can we rid ourselves of such vile habits?
We get out the same way we got here, through cultural engineering.
This time instead of doing it in secret on ever increasing groups of unknowing people we inform the people of the tools that have been created in order for us to create ourselves.
What justice is it having hidden parties affect us at a distance, taking our life paths away from us for their means.
Now, while my language might be precise as to certain people’s actions it is not precise in their motives their intentions, which is the most important lesson so far.
A form of lying beyond what I have laid out that makes our societies fruit rot is not allowing another human to be a human, the story each one of us is capable of telling about an individual often takes away the dignity we all would like to be afforded.
This lie, the lie that I am somehow better than someone who has made a particular mistake is at the heart of all of our world problems.
Certain cultures have it built within them that their adherents, their “people”, are disconnected from humanity at large that they are a special people.
Certain humans have it in them that they are somehow unlike those around them, different, special beyond the scope of anyone else’s capabilities.
And this is humanity’s greatest issue, the stories we tell ourselves, the stories that make us function are grossly inadequate and predicated on fundamentally abhorrent morals.
We tell ourselves these deep stories that if we kept track of could not allow us to act the way we do, instead we choose to lie to ourselves and those around us about the meaning and structure those stories for personal gain.
This type of lie has churches who don’t help the homeless.
This is why there is no solution to terrorism, instead of ask what causes terrorism, it is assumed there should not be such actions in humans, actions which are simply inexcusable.
This inaccessibility is not because the individuals condemning such behavior and their cohorts and constituents are pure from such transgressions and are incapable of such violence, but because that narrative is the most convenient for themselves.
The higher the civilian death toll from any war the more obvious this becomes, the more violent wars become the longer they run the more quickly people become aware of this type of lie.
So then if people are individually aware, but culturally unable to talk about what they are aware of what then do we have ourselves?
It seems we have ourselves the precursor to a totalitarian state, it is becoming okay to lie and none of the problems we see are our fault and the individuals who are at fault must be punished.
We see this type of behavior most not at the national level but the interpersonal level, the use and abuse of lies and the manipulation of an individual for personal gain is most of our daily lives.
Americans how much time do we spend creating a false narrative about ourselves?
It should be obvious the rampant alcoholism and substance abuse is just to be able to have the confidence to employ those narratives.
We pretend that there are peoples actions out there that excuse our weak actions, we assume that a fault in someone else allows a flaw in us, and this is simply a farce.
I should remind you that this is not a politically corrected dialogue, this is to remind you that we as a nation are becoming liars.
There are many reasons social manipulation, corruption, laziness, however there is only one solution, tell the truth.
It does not matter at what level, it does not matter under what circumstances you have gotten into the habit of lying our only salvation is to start the process of disclosure.
No longer is withholding information power, it is a disease, its moral cancer, and for a country that has aspirations like ours the truth is the only game plan that can allow our continued dominance in the social game.
It is rampant, it is everywhere, no spacetime of our environment is free from the tinge of lie.
Just remember words like native, savage, nigger, slavery, genocide, and it is clear that even our soil tells lies, how much blood was spilled?
And the feelings your gut just received is the truth, sad, beaten like like the women of the past unable to vote for their own truths.
Inflation and omission.
Inflate the others problems, omit ours, this is what madness is.
Obviously it would be nice if there was some different thing that could be said, like “We are perfect” or “place a rock at your doorstep at sunset and pray 3 times that night, when you wake up the world would be better” but, those are lies, which means that is simply not the case.
There are too numerous lies to list in this piece, but you as the reader should have by now thought of a multitude of lies so as you read this; I hope you understand that those lies are your mission, tell the truths those lies hide, if we all set out to do that we prevent catastrophe, however if we do not it will be worse than the world wars and the communist revolutions this time billions will die.
Totalitarianism is a complex topic but the highlight, the lubricant, of the totalitarian state is acceptance of the lie, especially blaming the problems of the system on groups of people.
A lie that the United States of America has tried its hardest to fight, one we could loose by refusing integrity.
Where we understood the system for what it is and changed the system we became better, when we blamed people and reinforced the system against them we were at our worst.
It is not our turn to become the evil force on the planet because if we just tell the truth and correct our systems to include the people they disadvantage we will end up not having done anything else.