Friday, May 1, 2009

Enhanced Mendacity Techniques

Dear Children:

This post comes from a place of deep frustration. The torture debate is on again. Wasn’t this settled? Didn’t Mr. Bush back off the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques”? Didn’t he say that, if we did torture we’d wouldn’t anymore? We held an election that included this subject where both candidates espoused the same position: We don’t torture.

I have an inkling why this matter is still front and center. It has to do with release of some memos written by political appointees in the Justice Department who split some hairs, razzled some dazzle and bammed some boozle – nothing up the sleeve, honest.

How poor is our political discourse when a few lame hacks can write gossamer bunkum justifying an odious practice followed by elected officials braying, “See? … Signed off by the lawyers”.

It’s bad enough when twaddle passes for scholarship, its worse when easily identifiable decency gets lost in the double shuffle.

The same hooey went on over the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. This one made it to the Supreme Court. It wasn’t even close. All the ink that was spilled making the case those non-citizens held on foreign territory were not entitled to Habeas Corpus never dealt with the obvious – we believe in Habeas Corpus. It is a founding principle of our republic. A high price has been paid for it preservation. The accused has a right to be charged under law, face his accuser and have a speedy trial. We believe in that.

This may be the time to assert that the Golden Rule leaves little room for slick interpretation. You know me. I’m deeply suspicious of the effortless aphorism. The Golden Rule, however, is so tightly wrought and so genuinely intuitive that there’s just no wriggle room.

The scholars call the Golden Rule the Ethic of Reciprocity. It is found in religious texts across the globe, is ancient as recorded thought, remarkably consistent in wording and held as an ideal nearly universally. Why is this so hard?

I’m just sayin’.

Much Love,

Poppy

Unclear Ignorance

Dear Children:

Have you noticed that TV news segments often involve reporters interviewing each other? Laying aside the suspicion that this practice is neither news nor reporting, we are left with nothing. “Tell me, Lancome, what does this triple homicide say about the quality of law enforcement in the city?” “That’s a very good question, Chanel. The answer is unclear.” Nothing gives way to more nothing.

Wait. Did he just say that the answer was unclear? Is that the same as saying he doesn’t know? Yes, it does mean he does not know the answer. Nor do we expect him to know the answer. The whole exchange is unintelligible.

But that’s not why I called this meeting. This meeting is about copping to ignorance. Maybe we can start a new fashion of admitting ignorance. One knows that ignorance has taken on a pejorative sense recently. It’s still a perfectly good English word. If you'd rather not use it among your friends, we can use it here for safe-keeping. It was no less a thinker than St Jerome who said: "It is worse still to be ignorant of your ignorance." More recently, Will Durant wrote: "Education is the progressive discovery one's ignorance."

Let’s start by appropriating from others less and attributing more. We don’t really know the answer to a question if we read it in this morning’s paper. We know for sure we read it in The Bugle. That’s about it. There is nothing wrong and certainly no dishonor to report that you don’t know but you read something in The Bugle.

This has become an important topic because the internet makes it possible to get a wide range of opinions on any subject quickly, easily and anonymously. We want to take care that we distinguish what we say for ourselves and what we pass on for others.

It’s hard, I know. Who can say with a straight face that something you just vouchsafed as fact was actually from squirrelnuts3411? Or, who would want to admit that some public policy opinion was recently cribbed from the blog bidenhater.com? Silly as it sounds, it must be done.

I’m just sayin’.

Much Love,

Poppy