![]() ![]() It had to organize society in a way where agreement about these questions could no longer be assumed nor achieved. ![]() Since more than a century of violence and tyranny could not overcome them, Western Europe had no choice but to acquiesce to their reality. If Orwell is right that all politicians lie, then in the words of another famous Englishman: “Meet the new boss same as the old boss.”īut while such claims are easy and may offer some measure of existential defense, it is meet to ask: how far down does such an assumption go? How much lying can we tolerate from politicians? Or, asked the other way, how much truth is required to sustain a democracy? As Americans confront the swearing in of their 45 th President, these questions take on a newfound salience.īorn of the wars of religion, democracy says that disagreements about God’s nature, and God’s will for human beings, are deep, abiding, and insoluble. The idea that political language is distinctively untrue fits with our low expectations regarding the outcomes of elections, and thereby helps us defend ourselves against the chronic disappointment that little will change, and even less will be for the better. Perhaps this is because by identifying politics with lies, we are able to detach ourselves from the entire enterprise. Indeed, the idea is so universal that often there is a breezy, even cavalier quality to it. Questions about how much and what kind of lies are of critical importance in what follows, and partisans will always point exclusively to the other side, but is there anyone who disputes the fundamental notion that, in the words of Hannah Arendt, “truth and politics are on rather bad terms with each other”? This universal claim is accepted universally. Politicians may try to sound truthful, but they are not. He notes that “with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists.” It is thus as universal as it is damning. In Politics and the English Language, George Orwell famously said “political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” Orwell’s claim is not about some subset of politicians or certain occasions of political speech. This article is part of The Critique’s January/February 2017 Issue “Stick It To The Man: A Year Of Anglo-American Populist Revolt Against A Changing Culture & An Obtuse Political Establishment.” ![]()
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