Truth Has Become the Bell That No One Rings

What is true and what is not used to be decided by scientific testing, or agreed upon by serious debate and historic example. Those methods no longer accurately apply. Politicians once lied to us with more grace and subterfuge, but lying is not a new trade.

Journalism was, at one time, the gateway. Investigative journalism once played a crucial role in uncovering corruption. It’s painful to write that, while having lived through the times of witnessing its demise, but that’s the price we pay for being old. I was born in 1935 and read, just recently, that only 1% of those of us born in that year are alive today.

As the last of us kick that final bucket, truth goes with us.

Proof of that need go no further than the growing number of Holocaust deniers. They question the archives, which is their right, no wonder how wrong. I don’t need to question, because I watched the newsreels at the time, as the deathcamps at Buchenwald and Auschwitz were liberated. I will be gone, as will all the survivors of the Holocaust and even its truths will fade into the dim recesses of history, and its deniers will gain ground as every witness is peeled off the onion.

It has been said, and there is some truth in it, that history is written by the winners.

Perhaps so and, if we accept that, there is leakage around the edges of what we once believed. Yet, if there are casualties in the war against truth, and anyone with eyes to see would agree there is, it is best defined by The Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell has its own recorded truths, and one might even call them omens.

Originally, the Pennsylvania State House Bell arrived in Philadelphia from the foundry in 1752, and cracked the first time it was rung (omen #1). It was recast in Philadelphia, and rang for colonial events, becoming a symbol of freedom for abolitionists. It famously cracked beyond repair in 1846 while ringing for George Washington’s birthday (a 2^nd omen), gaining its name and status as a revered American relic, an icon for truth. It is displayed today at the Liberty Bell Center in the Independence National Historic Park.

If an icon for truth was required, 125 years ago in the times before President Lincoln, it would lead credence to the fact that truth has always been subject to attack.

Enter Trump, stage right, Act One, Scene Two of his Presidencies.

(Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Jan 23, 2021) “He overstated the “carnage” he was inheriting, then later exaggerated his “massive” crowd and claimed, despite clear evidence to the contrary, that it had not rained during his address. He repeated the rain claim the next day, along with the fabricated notion that he held the “all-time record” for appearing on the cover of Time magazine.

“And so it went, day after day, week after week, claim after claim, from the most mundane of topics to the most pressing issues.

“Over time, Trump unleashed his falsehoods with increasing frequency and ferocity, often by the scores in a single campaign speech or tweetstorm. What began as a relative trickle of misrepresentations, including 10 on his first day and five on the second, built into a torrent through Trump’s final days as he frenetically spread wild theories that the coronavirus pandemic would disappear “like a miracle” and that the presidential election had been stolen — the claim that inspired Trump supporters to attack Congress on Jan. 6 and prompted his second impeachment.

“The final tally of Trump’s presidency: 30,573 false or misleading claims — with nearly half coming in his final year.”

During these times in which we live, ‘scientific testing, or agreed upon by serious debate and historic example,’ is out the window.

For those who watched Trump’s first term, the Washington Post did a remarkable job documenting every lie the president told and backed it up with documented fact-checking. It was a real heavy-duty benefit for those seeking the truth. The Post has decided that they won’t continue this in-depth fact checking for Trump’s second term primarily due to exhaustion.

That’s what they claim and, while not a proven fact, it’s a credible surmise that Post owner Jeff Bezos required his paper to back off. Bezos has significant interest in government contracts for Amazon Web Services, and he’s already taken a knee for Trump by declining the Post’s long commitment to naming a preference (Kamala) in a presidential election.

Thus, finally, with the aid of a complicit Congress, Supreme Court, and Fourth Estate (The press, including journalists, newspaper writers, photographers), Truth Has Become the Bell That No One Rings.

As for the cracks in that bell, and omens, it might be wise to remember a line from Leonard Cohen’s lyrics: “There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

If it’s actually true that history is written by the winners, this presidency may decide, for once and for all, who those winners will be.

As always, the Constitution guarantees that We The People have a choice in the matter, at least for the moment…