Living in the Age of Anti-Satya

Now that the Baby Boomers are at the crest of their power, it is no accident that ethics have reached an incredible new low. The generation that said 'anything goes' is doing just that. The generation that said there's no right or wrong is acting accordingly.

I don't idolize Gandhi but he did espouse one concept I agree with - Satya - live truthfully (forgive the fancy sanskrit - i only learned if from a great bollywood film :) ). We can see the direct consequences of a society that doesn't do so. Lying - as long as you can get away with it - is not only acceptable - it's encouraged. As Edith Hamilton pointed out in "The Greek Way" when society no longer rewards good men and virtue that society is on its way to falling apart.

We were lied into the Iraq war by Fiefth, Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheney and Bush. Their lies didn't stop there. They went on to hire dishonest contractors, and loot the very people they intended to help and had the gaul to send American soldiers into the field without proper equipment by pocketing the money intended to arm them. Now not only are billions of dollars (and thus power) being transfered from taxpayers to corrupt contractors. Now the equivalent of a Virginia Tech massacre is happening daily in Iraq - sometimes two fold that number. Yet no one has yet been charged with any crime - because they now tell new lies - that they thought the intelligence was real.

Locally, Ratner has lied his way into robbing the public coffers of literally billions of dollars- by creating a false air of virtue and making promises he has no intention of keeping. We have a multiple industries of specialized liars- PR firms, Ad Agencies, "consultants" that find legal ways to lie, and justify it to themselves that i f 'falls within the rules'. Thus consultants hired by the city to assess the Duffield Street houses historic value can ignore obvious evidence and draw a legal conclusion that says they were never used in the underground railroad. As long as they create a false reality on paper, their consciouses are clear.

As long as we continue to reward people like Ratner, and as long as people like Charney can continue to do the dishonest business they do, more and more people will act like Ratner and Charney.