Each spring the cherry blossoms paint Washington, D.C. pink. Nature testifies, in an archetypal American metaphor, that the United States honors the truth and not the lie. One of our nation’s most enduring and heart-warming myths tells the story of a young George Washington saying, “I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree.” The moral of the story is true even though the account is a bit of idol worshipping exaggeration. We are strengthened by the vision of a truth-telling national leader known as the “father of our country.”
For about 14 days in March, the cherry blossoms burst forth forcing Americans to remember we are supposed to be a people of truth. As a believer in the epistemic power of metaphors, I am convinced there are metaphors capable of creating new realities for our nation. I am trusting the cherry blossoms to call us back to our commitment to truth
America has become a nation filled with lies, but the cherry blossoms call us back to renewal. Our president seems intent on slapping gold gilding everywhere in D.C., but it’s the pink we need – the hot pink reminder that we are a nation built on truth and not lies.
As a parent, if your 8-year-old son told you multiple lies over a period of a week, would you discipline and correct your child’s lies? Or would you think your son is just being a kid and will grow out of the habit? Would you excuse and defend your child’s lies? If your child then made a habit of lying over a period of extended years, what would you do?
As a teacher, if a student cheated on an exam and you witnessed the cheating and if the student then denied he cheated, what would you do? Would you give the student a zero (0) on the text and an F for the course? Or would you ignore the cheating and allow the student to continue cheating on every examination?
As a plant supervisor, if an employee was caught stealing from the company and then lied to cover up his theft, would you fire the employee? Or would you excuse the behavior and overlook the stealing and lying?
If you are a preacher or a reader of the Bible, you know lying is wrong. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). And yet America has become a nation of Cretans. St. Paul told Titus,
It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said, “Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.”
St. John, the disciple of love, wrote: “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (I John 4:20).
Lying is not acceptable behavior, but lying now dominates politics. There are real life consequences for lying and stealing, but lying now passes for good political strategy.
Why have we become one nation attending the International Liars Convention? Why do we accept, believe, and repeat lies? Have we all been fooled by “the father of lies” who turns truth into lies and lies into truth?
The United States has a president who lies as a matter of course, a gang of deputies who defend and repeat his lies and an adoring crowd who know he’s lying but trust him anyway.
How did we arrive at this dark place in our nation’s soul? Cell biologist Kenneth Miller, in Only a Theory, reminds us of the American character: “We are practical, pragmatic, demanding. We want to see the evidence, and because we tend not to rely on authority, we want to see it for ourselves. We value the individual, and we lionize those who have gone against the grain to pursue a dream, to prove a point, to fight for an idea. We serve as an incubator of ideas, an engine of scientific creativity that has lifted the condition of mankind everywhere and opened new horizons of understanding from which the rest of the world can draw.”
Now, we accept the absurd claims of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that circumcision causes autism, that vaccines are dangerous for our children, and a legion of conspiracy theories.
If we are a people who honor honesty and integrity in all areas of life, why are we supporting a serial liar as our nation’s leader? President Trump is the least truthful major politician in modern American history.
Are there pragmatic reasons for supporting lies over the truth? Do you think lying strengthens the foundation of our democratic nation? Does lying undergird the processes of cooperation and compassion?
We can debate for decades about the lying ways of Donald Trump, or any of our politicians, but we should not have any reservations about the devastating consequences of a culture of lies. Lying is not a virtue. It is a destabilizing and adverse vice in every area of life.
In contrast, we are now living under an entirely different mythology. President Trump, in The Art of the Deal outlines our new national myth: “I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe something is the biggest and greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration – and a very effective form of promotion.”
Trump’s “truthful hyperbole” really means, “I’m lying, but who cares?” The biggest lie of President Trump is his constant refrain, “Make America Great Again.”
It is unlikely Trump will make America great again. And it is doubtful Trump’s supporters care much about whether he will make America great again. “Making America great again” is an idea whose truth-value is decidedly unstraightforward. The power of Trump’s lie comes from making people feel great as a result of the lie. If Trump makes people feel great, feel as if America is being put first again, they will be content.
Trump promises to make America great again and if MAGA saw the promise as a lie they would be forced to care about him lying. The entire dream and the good feeling would evaporate. MAGA would have to struggle with “Make America Great Again” being the biggest lie of all.
Our nation has come to the end of our most enduring mythology. We have swapped George Washington for Donald Trump. His lies are accepted as truth because no one has held him accountable. His ability to lie and get away with it has become, for MAGA, a sign of his strength. Getting away with it has become an American virtue. No one notices that his move signals a public despising of truth – the traditional habit of truth-seeking and truth-telling.
I miss George Washington and his cherry tree. Americans have made a bad trade by embracing social media, posts, tweets, and the huge lies that inhabit the culture of the lie. We now believe lies that are so huge we think they must be true otherwise life would be absurd.
I prefer an America wrapped in a metaphor of “cherry blossoms” to the absurdities of our post-truth lying ways.
I look forward to the coming of the cheery blossoms in the Spring. The poet Toi Dericotte expressed my hope for truth:
All around us
the blossoms
flurry down
whispering,
Be patient
you have an ancient beauty.
