What Happens When an Unstoppable Force Meets an Immovable Object?
We’re about to find out
Very reluctantly, I find myself peeking over the wall of my mental bunker to see how things are going with the planning and preparation for our new Administration … you know, the one 76 million patriotic Americans decided would be a swell idea to try out, just for fun. So far, I have to say, things are not looking good, but are unfolding pretty much as expected.
I keep coming back to the pesky idea of truth. As many experts on authoritarian regimes have pointed out, one of the first things such regimes try to do is destroy people’s belief in objective truth (source). If truth is allowed to be a criterion of choosing between beliefs — i.e., if beliefs can be determined to be true or false — this weakens the authoritarian’s grip because it provides a method by which the leader’s “truths” can be evaluated and judged. Beliefs can be compared to something called “evidence”, and they can be determined to be either true or false based on their conformance with that evidence. This is not good for the fledgling authoritarian, because it constrains his freedom to tell the lies he needs to tell to get people to do what he wants them to do, which is to engage in behavior that benefits him and his allies, not the people themselves.
