I really wish I didn't need to be writing this, but that's the life of a coach, I guess! Apparently, middle America is being bombarded by rumor and innuendo in preparation for the upcoming election. The Internet Age is making anonymous slander so much easier now! The Obama thing is just that latest example of how, if nonsense is repeated loudly enough and often enough, people will be inclined to believe it. Once upon a time, it was considered not just bad taste, but morally reprehensible to repeat gossip (of course, that never stopped people, but it was always publicly frowned upon). Today, things are quite different: unfounded slander and gossip get paraded out as the 'real truth that they didn't want you to know. And, of course, you're not paranoid, they really are out to get you!
What's happened to basic honesty and decency? Have the Washington scandals so corroded our capacity for recognizing the facts that what's wrong appears right and what's right appears wrong? Or, in this age of information overlad and future shock, have people's capacity for researching information and applying critical reasoning been so overwhelmed that they no longer function? Recent polls suggest that at least 10% of the American public blieves that Obama is a Muslim, while a much greater percentage of people believe that human-caused global warming is an invention of left-wing terrorist environmentalists in league with Al Qaida and our elected officials in the US government.
Sanity — that illusive balance that needs to be stricken between trust and a healthy skepticism — is at stake here. As the Romans were fond of proclaiming: mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body). Health, as even Plato recognized, is a matter of maintaining a balance. When that balance becomes so completely upset that fiction becomes truth and truth becomes fiction, we're in deep doo-doo. I still don't know an effective way out of this impasse (short of allowing the whole system to collapse under the weight of its own insanity). On the one hand, we're failing to educate people in the subjects that provide the mental acuity to perform complex analytical reasoning. On the other hand, freedom of speech means that we can't — and we don't want to — prevent people from communicating however they choose, even if it's destructive.
Whether it's a vicious rumor being spread about ourselves, our families or our businesses, it's useless to argue against it. After all, as they say, "When you argue with a fool, it's impossible for a casual observer to tell the difference." Once again, I want to call upon my old, old friend, the Apostle Saint Paul, who wrote "Do the truth in love." Think for a moment what your life would be like, were you always to do the truth. Imagine if always — 24/7 — your words matched your deeds and your deeds matched your values and your values matched your beliefs about who you are and why you're here. Can you conceive of what it would be like always to live in your integrity?
Will this single change of mind and heart change the world all by itself? Of course not! But, it's a first step, and if that first step is never taken, then the journey will never begin. And, what are the consequences? If you're feeling dispirited and discouraged, if you feel sometimes (in the depth of your heart) that you're life may be a sham and that, if people really knew you as you really are, they wouldn't like or accept you, then you have a chance to change all that. They say, "If you want to be esteemed, do esteemable things." Striving to live in your integrity won't solve the world's problems, but it'll help you to believe in yourself. And, just maybe, if you believe in yourself, others in your world just might follow suit. How many 'others' do you think it would take to make a real difference?
Sorry . . . I've got to close now. The Vatican is calling.
H. Les Brown, MA, FCC
Copyright © 2008 H. Les Brown
I have deleted the comment because it's not relevant to the article, which is not about Obama (who, incidentally, has the right to self-identify as any religion he chooses), but about truthiness and gullibility. If you would like to comment on why people are more prone to believe rumor than fact, then your comments will be welcome.
Posted by: Les | Wednesday, July 02, 2008 at 01:31 PM
Is someone paranoid? Is there some research that should be censored? Is there something that "they" don't want you to know? Who ever heard of censoring "Comments"??
[Remainder deleted — HLB]
Posted by: D Brown | Wednesday, July 02, 2008 at 12:37 PM