The Truth Will Set You Free

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32 (NIV)

In May 1976, Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner (as Emily Lattella) exchanged the following during a Saturday Night Live skit:

Emily Lattella: What's all this fuss I keep hearing about violins on television? Why don't parents want their kids to see violins on television? I thought the Leonard Bernstein concerts were just lovely, now, if they only show violins on television after ten o'clock at night, the little babies will all be asleep and they won't learn any music appreciation. They'll learn to play guitars, and bongo drums and go to Africa and join these rock and roll outfits and they won't drink milk! I think there should be more violins on television and less game shows. It's terrible the way...

Chevy Chase: Um, Miss Lattella, that’s violence on television. Not violins.

Emily Lattella: Oh, well, that’s different. Never mind.

            Passionate, yes. Based upon fact? Hardly. On the eve of the Republican and Democratic conventions, Emily Lattella’s rant reminds me of the state of today’s politics -- riddled with faulty premises, immaterial data, irrelevant assumptions, and illogical conclusions. Like Lattella, what we think isn’t always what’s factual. While Lattella’s harangue stemmed from a simple semantic misunderstanding, today’s political spin-doctors purposely twist (or ignore) inconvenient truths to produce a favorable opinion within the public. In 2005, comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term ‘truthiness’ and defined it as “what you want to be true, not what is true.” Truthiness preys on the propensity for people to be attracted, like moths to a flame, to ideas and political positions with which they already agree – regardless of the facts. Truthiness results in people suspending their critical thinking in favor of what Irving Janis termed ‘groupthink’ in 1972. Janis advanced three preconditions for groupthink:

-- high group cohesiveness;

-- structural faults (insulation, lack of impartial leadership, absence of norms requiring practical procedures, and the sameness of members’ ideology and social backgrounds);

-- situational context (stressful external threats, recent failures, excessive decision-making difficulties, and moral dilemmas).

Powerful people and dominant interests committed to securing political outcomes use all tactics, fair and foul, to achieve their ends – including truthiness and groupthink. Genuine truth is the ultimate enemy of truthiness and groupthink.  Groupthink and truthiness are evident in many of today’s high-stake political issues, particularly those dealing with equality (racial, marriage, gender), church and state (prayer in schools, state religion, and the role of the church in politics), and human dignity/rights (health care, poverty, class divides). In the current political climate, truth is often sacrificed on the altar of partisan influence. When we cannot or do not recognize truthiness and groupthink at play in the public debates, we fall prey to the spin-doctors of all political persuasions who employ them so skillfully.

It would be helpful to engage in critical thinking and thereby identify where truthiness and groupthink are polluting the political landscape. So, in coming weeks, check back for a series of articles illuminating the relevant history and facts surrounding key issues of equality, church and state, and human dignity/rights.

Perhaps our misunderstandings are simply based upon semantics and, like Emily Lattella, we can say, “Oh, well, that’s different. Never mind.” However, perhaps there are other forces at work intent on generating misunderstanding for parochial gain. In either case, the truth shall set you free. Stay tuned…