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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2007 > April > 19 > Entry
Making lies come true
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales spent the day on the Congressional hot seat. He is trying to save his job. The scandal that has been building momentum for months now seems destined to sweep him off the rolling deck of the USS Justice Department.
I have been following the case. As he testified today before a Congressional committee, a protester held up a sign behind him. It read: “I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE BUT THE TRUTH.”
Even Arlen Specter, a Republican, has been gnawing on poor Alberto. As I watched the coverage I remembered a book that I read a few years ago. I fished it out of my stacks with the hope that it might help me to comprehend this current mess.
The book is “The Concise Book of Lying” by Evelin Sullivan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/2001). This little gem examines the history of telling lies. Why do we do it? How do we do it? Does anything good ever come out of it?
Sullivan cuts right to the chase. She says that “language is the politician’s tool, and one reason we’ve all become distrustful of what “public servants” tell us is that we’ve been alerted by experts to “doublespeak,” language aimed at distorting, misleading, and otherwise deceiving.”
Let’s call it a “perversion of communication.” She states that “politicians and advertisers lost the trust of the informed constituent or consumer long ago because their dishonesty has been well documented. But the more we learn about lies in all areas, the more trust leaks out of the world.”
The trust has been leaking out of this administration for years. Weapons of Mass Destruction. Mission Accomplished. He (fill in the blank) has my full support. I don’t remember. I can’t recall.
Remember this; the truth hurts.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: politicked
Comments
By Norah
April 21, 2007 6:53 AM | Link to this
The other specialty in the art of lying that Bush & Co. are masters of is REPETITION. (If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. Who said that, anyway? It was either a really good guy like Twain or a really bad guy like Stalin…) WH response after Gonzalez’s testimony: that the President had full confidence in the AG and that “he answered all the questions that the senators had.” Now, if you didn’t know any better (hadn’t read reports, transcripts, or editorials showing that he answered almost NOTHING) and if you weren’t familiar with this WH practice of unabashedly rewording the truth such that it describes wishful thinking ONLY, you might say “Well, I guess that’s that. Whew! He got through it and we can move on.” The hope is that masses of only peripherally informed people will interpret the words from the HIGH Office of the President of the United States as indication that this lying, obfuscating, double-speaking Attorney General was exonerated. Pardon me while I go beat a punching bag somewhere.