Truth

As I recall, Pilate asked "what is truth?"

So, what is truth? Does it matter? We seem to live in a world where truth doesn't matter. People spread lies (which I believe they believe is truth) with impunity. Few seem to have the courage to confront the lies. After all, we are asked to allow teachers to "teach the controversy" when there is no controversy except the line between truth and ignorance, such vast ignorance.

Swiftboaters spread their lies on the internet. Obama is a Muslim. Obama will be the target of Muslim assassins because he has turned his back on Islam.

How did our country become a place where intelligence is disparaged? How did it become a place where truth has become fiction and fiction truth?

I suppose it has always been a place which has looked down on "eggheads" and the academia. But aren't we supposed to use the brains God gave us? Didn't God give us intelligence for a reason?

What ever happened to good old fashioned Calvinism which recognizes the tendency for human to be selfish, self centered? It seems to have been replaced with an idolatry of free marketism, which would have been unrecognizable to Adam Smith. We have thus been left vulnerable to the machinations of those who are stupid enough to believe that bubbles cannot burst. (I have some tulip bulbs I'd like to sell.)

Can't we be sensible? Can we appeal to something other than the least common denominator? Can't our political leaders sense what is right and stick by it instead of pandering to the self centered.

I'll admit, I'm depressed about Obama. I had seen in him a person willing to call our country to our highest ideals; but with FISA I see someone who cares more about getting elected than about our highest ideals. And I see in his willingness to conform to what he or his advisors see as what is needed to appeal to others than his core supporters, a fatal flaw--the loss of his core supporters. Yes, I'll vote for him, because a vote for McCain is a vote for more of the same failed policies of the past 8 years (and because Esfahan is a beautiful city which I would hate to see destroyed and is home to beautiful people who deserve to live and flourish).