Truthiness II
I grew up, as did generations of Americans, with the image of George Washington as the paragon of moral rectitude. ("I cannot tell a lie," went the old joke, "Popeye did it.") It was a model that politicians until very recent times presumably followed, and we know that's not true. I suspect even old George told a whopper or two, and dissembling was a lot easier before television and now YouTube because, well, who knew? But I suspect the problem isn't just with the politicians, but with the nature of people. "We have met the enemy and he is us," said Pogo famously. The electorate is lazy, and all too willing to buy the goods based on packaging. Nobody wants to take the time to read the fine print on the labels.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:06 AM
2 Comments:
The legend of the young George and the cherry tree is totally false! Historians have been traced it back to Parson Mason Locke Weems who authored the first biography: “Life of George Washington; with Curious Anecdotes, Equally Honorable to Himself, and Exemplary to His Young Countrymen.” (1800) Today, most scholars consider that anecdote to be total fiction while some revisionists have gone so far as to claim that George Washingon himself never existed. If you look closely at his face on the one dollar bill you will note its uncanny resemblance to Barbara Bush, wife of one president and mother of another. These historians contend that the cheery tree myth is all part of a greater conspiracy concocted by the oil oligarchy to get us involved in foreign entanglements.
il professore, you forgot to bring in the Trilateral CommissionLOL roger
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