PREVARICATION.... playing fast and loose with the truth
So here we are living in our brave new world where catastrophes leap at our throats like unbridled tigers. If we were Greek we would say we have really displeased Zeus who was the head honcho or the Boss of all his pack of capricious Gods and some overdue punishments are being parcelled our ways. We have to stay strong and take it on the chin.
With social media in overdrive and statements being uttered by lofty Politicians, interest groups, Television anchors and of course the Press one particular brickbat is being hurled at a dizzying pace. ‘ Not true’ is the mantra of the day. So this requires a good familiarity with the three specimens of intentional dishonesty. Prevaricate, Equivocate and the blunt Lie may satisfy our desire to fiddle with shades of meaning. Perhaps a clever lawyer may resort to this but for the rest of us more responsible action is called for. The evasion of truth is a nasty exercise and as there are no secrets. What gets out in the wash is disgrace and more importantly dishonour. I may have to be excused here as I am partial to honour. I had a classical education and parents who would understand ,but not shrink from the moral curve of meting appropriate punishment designed to be a learning device..
I remain partial to ‘prevaricate’ as it appears to be less accusatory and softens the bluntness of ‘lie’ and implies evasion rather than purposely making false statements. Equivocate on the other hand points to a crafty habit of using words which have more than one sense. Still it is an attempt to mislead. What is at stake here is the worth of sincerity which is again twinned with the truth.
As a novelist when I flesh a character out I may add elements of heroism or skullduggery of some type to make fiction sparkle. Certain responses have to be evoked from the reader so the page is turned. To thrill, hold in suspense or even repulse and frighten are the make believe building blocks of literature. It is the untrammeled boundaries of imagination which are on display and hence the genre ‘fiction’.
Yet the conflict in Israel and Palestine is not a racy novel. When 2000 children are killed in Gaza a truly hideous reality confronts the world. Strangely enough we are not shaken to the core?. I am, being a mother, and suspect I may know about the oceans of grief parents are drowning in. One does live to bury a child and regain normalcy. However, even our bespoke electronic media outlets have become partisan. They air patently suspect videos and tik tok clips and imbue them into what is called serious programming. A heavy handed bias has crept into reportage so CNN, BBC and even dear old CBC are sounding like clones of each other. The ‘other team’ as President Biden said making a political gaffe of embarrassing proportions does not have media outlets which have the budgets, the distribution and the monopoly of North American or European the air waves. So the truth is somewhere in Transit without a destination in sight.
Plucky social and political Scientists have jumped into the fray here and there and the mission is to disrobe all lies. Is there a virus at large which is more lethal than COVID? It appears to be the propagating of Lies. That vaulted notion of unchallenged self glorification which holds so many in its thrall met by the zealots of truth seekers. Psychology, a diving tool in its therapy insists on confessions and admissions of the truth as a healing rod. There are shocking examples of young people in therapy who lie about their parents and muddy the waters of post traumatic stress disorder.. Recent study of parental alienation of adult children reveals that a parent is made a target so it easier to victimize them by imbuing them with concocted hate filled scenarios. Therapists and Parents of Fifty nine countries have banded together to find a solution to tackling a lie which erodes true family history.
The world is confronted with a war in the Middle East at present. Whose suffering is greater than the others? A cousin who is a seasoned Diplomat, said all ambassadors are polished liars. That’s the job he explains to me. More often than not we have to be evasive. I find this to be debatable as it leads to the assumption that Diplomacy itself is untrustworthy?
The spirited and charismatic playwright, novelist and poet Oscar Wilde made history in 19th century England. He initiated a defamation lawsuit against the Marquess Of Queensbury whose son he had seduced by claiming this was not the case. Oscar Wilde was an avowed homosexual and was fearful of being found guilty of an act which was considered criminal. Halfway through the lawsuit he withdrew it. Exonerated on the first try but his withdrawal was deemed to confirm the guilt. He was tried again and convicted for a two year sentence of hard labour which he served. It was Oscar Wilde’s lie which backfired and destroyed his life. The trials exhibited his brilliant wit and use of language as he resorted to equivocating. yet there was sufficient evidence to prove that he had defended a lie and lost. Perhaps at that time he needed a seasoned Diplomat rather than a lawyer to plead his case.
How we communicate today is by resorting to old techniques. Surprisingly the maxim of if you keep repeating a lie it becomes the truth. Then the game is won as passionate and visibly emotional individuals band together and often riot in public under the banner of this turncoat lie. If anyone is trying to get updates on the current war in Gaza dubbed as collective punishment it is pitted against the never forgotten horrors of the Holocaust. There is merit on both sides. For those of us separated by The Atlantic Ocean and dependent on popular social media and the conformist vagaries of our presses the quest for truth is a path filled with pitfalls. This is the real siege., and it does not come by rocket, machine gun or tanks. It is equipped by a singular technique which is indeed Prevarication. Wherever one can, resistance is called for.