The citizens of the United States are faced with a predicament. Which of its leaders tell the least lies?
There is an organisation called PolitiFact which actually tracts lies politicians make.
While we have witnessed persons accusing President Trump of consistently stretching the truth, in a recent article “In His Lies, Joe Biden Is Sounding a Lot Like Trump,” Journalist Branco Marcetic also exposes some of Mr Biden’s lies.
This paragon of democracy has produced a slew of ex-presidents who all gave shades of the truth.
Remember Bill Clinton looked in camera and said “I did not have sex with that woman.”
He later got impeached and apologised for his mistruth after a costly four year investigation.
President Obama with Obamacare, falsely said persons “can keep their existing healthcare plan.”
George Bush told the world Saddam Hosein had weapons of mass destruction and was allowed to bomb that nation based on a lie.
Even President Kennedy hid from the public his deal with the Russian president to remove US missiles out of Turkey if the Russians removed theirs out of Cuba, and said he would deny if asked.
It was the investigative fifth estate which brought this to light.
Such is the importance of a free independent press.
Recently in our twin island state, we had allegations made that our own politicians were deceiving us.
The visit of the Venezuelan vice president and her team of “Covid experts” certainly had many persons looking to see if our Pinocchio politicians would grow long noses.
Then we had young attorney--Mr Fuad Abu Bakr saying he was to be screened by the PNM for a Port-of-Spain seat.
Denials both by the Prime Minister as well as his father Mr Abu Bakr came after. Who has given us an Anansi story here?
I think Mr Fuad’s advent into traditional politics would have been a victory for democracy, illustrating here is a man whose father stormed parliament with guns but now his son was seeking to enter parliament by democratic means.
It would have been a lesson for all the budding revolutionaries.
Presently, circulating in social media is a union leader saying our prime minister is a liar and a big debate presently is whether the Opposition leader said “blank” or “black.”
In cases like these we can in fact scientifically assist the public to determine who is speaking the truth.
Psychologist Dr Paul Ekman author of Telling Lies, Emotions Revealed and Unmasking the Face—is an expert lie detector who’s advised American Secret Service and the Department of Defense on the science of reading facial expressions.
Our facial muscles, eyes and body language can be read by experts.
There are 43 muscles in the face and microexpressions cannot be controlled as they happen in a fraction of a second and it is possible to capture someone’s expressions with a high-speed camera and replay them at much slower speed, interpreting the microexpressions, through the Facial Action Coding System, and body language.
If videos of our politicians are sent to him, he can in fact tell us the answer calypsonian Lord Nelson asked, who is King Liar?
In this guava season we will in fact get lots of promises, some may be goals each party want to set, some may be empty promises to entice the voter.
We can also get some dangerous mistruths intended to create political mischief.
All seems fair in the love and war of politics. Would a discerning electorate want to know who they can trust, or will persons not care ?
With politicians voicing that “all of we thief” and “politics has a morality of it’s own,” do we accept dishonest politicians?
Do we have a culture of dishonesty accepted by the majority? I think persons may not care much about lying politicians. They may expect such from the political animal and be more concern about crime, unemployment, affordable housing and the price of food.
The lying, spinning, concealment and fear mongering all seems to be part of global politics.
In Professor John Mearsheimer’s book Why leaders lie: The truth about lying in international politics, two main causes of lies were listed: (1) Strategic lie to benefit the country and (2) Selfish lie for personal gain.
Even J William Fulbright a US Senator over 29 years said: “The biggest lesson I learnt from Vietnam is not to trust governments statements.”
The Greek philosopher Diogenes who died in 323 BC at the age of 89 years, spent his life walking with a lantern looking to find one single honest man, he died without finding one.
So should we, like Diogenes carry a lantern to look for a virtuous politician or simply accept the fact that all politicians can be guilty of stretching the truth?