The Certainty of Make Believe

Dear George,

The successful passage of the bank bailout bill once again proves that you are more than the decider; you are the definer. You shape reality as it rolls off your tongue with the same fallaciousness as your eloquence. You speak, and it is; you cry threat, and the public quakes.

You reposition regression as progress, failure as success, madness as sanity, and a house of cards as a sound economy. You sold the public on a value system that rages against gay marriage but is quite at ease with the suffering and displacement created by a plant closing and moving overseas. You tell them indecency is a naked woman lewdly displayed, but not a child shredded by shrapnel.

The dead albatross of ideology gives your utterances a gravitas denied those foolish enough to speak the truth. Truth speakers know that the Truth is always beyond articulation, so they speak haltingly and with nuance.

The lie can afford to shout because it is not anchored by the dead weight of reality. It can float like a hot-air balloon cut loose from its mooring. The lie wears a youthful face uncreased by the cares of reality. It smiles readily and exudes a charm lacking in truth speakers. It is the lie’s certainty that makes it much more efficient than the truth.

Only the lie is capable of making definitive statements; the truth stutters.

Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones