Two Half-Truths Don’t Make the Whole Truth

The unfortunate development of politics is that it has become partisan and increasingly petty -- and thus ineffective, because the original intent was to unite the whole community in concerted and deliberative action. When anything becomes its own antithesis -- it obviously negates and destroys itself, creating the need for the evolution to the next level that overcomes that futility. Ineffectiveness can not just go on indefinitely -- for no other purpose but to perpetuate itself.

Some societies perpetuate those behaviors as their “cultural heritage” -- because that was an important component of that culture, that has now become essentially extinct -- except for the annual rituals that revive those ties to the past. But that is all they are now -- a repetition in itself, with no meaning and purpose anymore. Such behaviors occupy the time and energy that could be devoted to productive ones.

A large part of that perceived divisiveness is the result of the reporting -- or the representation of the issue as an eternal argument between the left and the right, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican -- as though that was necessary to understand the particulars, rather than a distraction from ever understanding the issues without these preconceived notions (prejudices) of them. So this battle becomes the entirety of the issue, rather than any resolutions beyond the partisanship -- which of course, would be the statesmanship, politics at its best is about.

At its worst, politics is about these personal struggles and ambitions of one against every other for sole dominance and prominence -- and then once one is there, their entire preoccupation is to maintain that status at the top of the pecking order rather than do any possible good for anybody else. It becomes entirely self-serving and self-aggrandizing, and any other perception than the one they wish it to be, is considered the assault against the sensibilities.

A half-truth is a nice way of saying something is a lie -- because that’s what it is if it is not an attempt at the whole truth. Another half-truth to counter that distortion, doesn’t bring everyone closer to the whole truth -- but multiplies the deceptions, distortions and manipulations into hopeless confusion. More testimonies of partial (partisan) truth (lies) then makes the arrival at any truth impossible. And that is what a lot of so-called hearings are all about these days -- for which the most astute have realized is futile to attend when it is clear what the "forum of inquiry" has already decided. It becomes a mockery of justice and fairness -- justified by simply being the reality of partisan politics, which should never be acceptable -- rather than convincing us that is the way it is now.

That’s how the media lost its moral bearings and authority -- and became essentially useless. The reporters became so overwhelmed by the arguments and deceptions, that they are the first of the casualties of such battles to deceive and manipulate -- because of their superficial knowledge pretending to know more than they actually do. That is clear from the confusion in their reporting -- that while the words are all there -- they have no idea what they are talking about, but have to continue because that is their job and what is expected of them. Their editors know even less -- because all they know are the words, and that they should have any meaning, is somebody else’s job.