Truth, Justice, and the American Way

11 July 2003
1:10 a.m.

Word of the Day: zeitgeist - n. The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation.

I saw a distressing thing today. One I haven't seen before, in fact. Although I am living in a very liberal pocket of Virginia, there are naturally still those among the population who would have me believe that God made man as he exists today.

Most people are familiar with the Jesus Fish...

...and its comic cousin, the Darwin Fish*...

*Darwin "Fish" is something of a misnomer, as this "fish" has feet. Fish did not evolve into bizarre proto-amphibians with gills, scales, and digits.

However, I became acquainted this afternoon with the Retaliation of the Right: the Truth Fish.

Now, on any other day, this could perhaps be overlooked. After all, one fish eating another to prove superiority is hardly clever invective. But it appears that our President only yesterday redefined "truth" for people like me, who had thought it meant "cold, hard facts" or perhaps even "what really happened". In the wake of the admission by the White House that Bush claimed (falsely) that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy African uranium, a new wave of cynicism has taken over, and American skeptics everywhere are groping for grains of salt with which to take the things that come out of the President's mouth.

The following quote, given by Bush at a press conference in South Africa, is taken from the New York Times.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the world peace. And there's no doubt in my mind that the United States, along with allies and friends, did the right thing in removing him from power. And there's no doubt in my mind, when it's all said and done, the facts will show the world the truth. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind. And so there's going to be a lot of attempts to try to rewrite history, and I can understand that. But I am absolutely confident in the decision I made."

I apologize for the length of the quote; you're probably wondering if the joke is worth it. I only included the whole block in the interest of context. I wouldn't want anyone to think I was being *gasp!* unfair and partisan in my mockery of a prominent Republican.

Somehow, "truth" has been transformed! It doesn't mean "what we saw on the telly-vision set" or even "the obvious lies Ari Fleischer spoonfeeds me with the morning jumble"; now, Bush feels strongly, and lo, it is so! As long as he continues to have no doubts, we can easily hope that pigs may fly, hell may freeze over, and the Expos may win the World Series.

Now we come to it. The truth is what President Bush thinks. President Bush bases what he thinks (or claims to think) on dubious intelligence. The accuracy of the truth is dubious. Because people may doubt the President (even when he himself has no doubts in his mind), they may be attempting to...change what he said so that he doesn't sound like a total moron? How nice of them.

As for "revisionist historians"...isn't that what Winston Smith did at the Ministry of Truth?

Punchline of the Day: Intolerant? I got through thirteen years of public school without killing anyone!