"These Are the Days of Our Lives"

Since Donald Trump announced that he was a candidate for the Office of President of the United States, our nation has drifted toward a whole new way of living out our story.  Some may characterize this new national “show” as Reality TV.  But I believe we are more like an old-fashioned soap opera.

Reality TV depended on “truthiness.”  This word was coined by Stephen Colbert to describe language that sounded true, but wasn’t.  Generally, it sounded true because it played into our prejudices and beliefs.  Many want to believe that our country is a Christian Nation under the special protection of God.  The reality is far different.  Our founders specifically rejected the “Christian” origins of our national life.  Our population is a diverse tapestry of religious and non-religious folks.  But, truthiness comes into play when politicians play the “Christian” card in our national life.  Many believe it is true because they so desperately want to be true.

There are a whole range of truthy cards that have been played over the last 40 years.  “Trickle-down economics” and “Race Relations are Improving” are just two.  There are many, many others. 

One of the truthy myths that we all grew up with has led to the undoing of the “Reality TV” way of living was “In America, anyone can grow up to be President.”  We all wanted to believe that America was big enough and noble enough to allow a person to rise to the “highest office in the land” solely on merit.  Ironically, the undoing occurred when we actually lived into this truthiness.  When a Black man was elected President the dark underside of our national life was revealed.  And when a woman became the leading candidate to succeed him, the old ways of truthiness crumbled away.  Our Reality TV way of life was no longer enough to protect the beliefs and hopes for a significant part of our population.  We became a nation of liars.

You see, a Soap Opera is pure emotion wrapped around a storyline of stereotypes.  It is all a lie.  Almost everyone knows that it is a lie.  It is not real.  It does not pretend to be real.  It is pure fantasy for some and a campy satire on life for others.  Sane people recognize that it is just a TV show but they allow themselves to be emotionally moved by the storyline and the drama surrounding the characters.  However, the emotionally unbalanced cannot see the lie and actually believe that the drama is real life.  The movies “The Truman Show” and “Pleasantville” were grounded in this premise and acknowledged the dramatic shift that would take place 20 years later.

As we enter 2018, our national narrative reflects more of “Days of Our Lives” than “Survivor.”  There is more of “Dark Shadows” than “American Idol” in the America of 2018.  Our national leaders lie with impunity because they believe that if they say it often enough, a large percentage of the population will believe it.  (Hitler proved this to be true in pre-WWII Germany.)  Our leaders realize that roughly 30% of our population want to believe that we are a Christian and White nation and will set ignore any evidence to the contrary.  They will vote for the politician who is “honest” enough to speak this “Truth” rather than all that “political correctness” nonsense about diversity and fairness.  This 30% is motivated by their emotional ties to their beliefs and cannot be dissuaded.

However, 30% is not enough to form a majority, so these same national leaders commit lie after lie because they know that another 20% just do not want to be bothered.  They want to live their lives “under the radar” and if someone offers a convincing lie that others seem to believe, they will go along with it.  There will not be a great deal of emotion in this.  It is mostly a reasoned commitment to keeping the peace in their lives.  These are the folks who go along with Aunt Mabel as she argues about who really shot J.R. as if it was a real mystery.  They do not want to upset Aunt Mabel and so live with the cognitive dissonance.  They pretend to live with the lie because it is just easier.  This 20% can be dissuaded from accepting the lies of our leaders if they become more comfortable by rejecting the lies.

As long as our national leaders are able to attract the support of both of these groups, we will be trapped in Soap Opera not unlike “Pleasantville.”  The world will be “black and white.”  We will be driven by our emotions, not unlike cows to slaughter. We will watch as layer upon layer of lies cause the national fabric of our lives to become tattered and torn.

The first step toward a renewal of our national story is in revealing the truth to the 20%.  They hold the key to our future.  Once they see the damage being done by the “Liars Guild” that has taken over our national narrative, they will stand up to the “Aunt Mabel” and lead us to a new narrative, grounded in honesty and the common good.  What will that new story look like?  I do not know, but I want to believe that it will be better than the story we have been writing for the last 75 years.