They say we’re in a “post truth” age. Does this mean we’ve reached a point where we’ve gone beyond “truth” and “lies”, and they’re all the same? So, we can say whatever we feel like saying, and it’s alright? Pinocchio’s nose won’t grow?? Seems like it!! Not that we couldn’t always say whatever the heck we wanted – but if what you said didn’t match what was “out there”, you’d soon be consigned to the nearest madhouse!! Well, don’t get too woke – we do refer to the “Berbice Madhouse”, don’t we??
One of exemplars of this “post truth” age is no other that the 45th President of the US – Donald Trump – now back on the hustings. The Washington Post – which evidently had the manpower to keep track – enumerated 30,573 “untruths” he uttered during his 4-year term between 2017 and 2021. That’s an astounding 21 fibs told EVERY DAY FOR 4 YEARS!! The man should get a prize for that, if nothing else!! That’s fidelity to a cause – the cause of the dawning of the age of “post truth”!! And he’s now on course to break his own record!!
Now, what explains that Trump’s most fervent followers are the hardcore Christian fundamentalists from the Bible Belt? He’s even been called “the messiah”!! And this even though the Bible warns, “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.” It means, therefore, that Trump and his supporters don’t consider themselves lying – even though evidence to the contrary might abound!! Didn’t the Bible hint at this tendency when it said that “those that have ears should hear and those with eyes should see”??
But really, folks hear what they wanna hear, and see what they wanna see. The scientific revolution ushered in an era wherein folks should look at the “evidence” before making claims. But that’s now gone for channa! Now we hear that every assertion we make in the world is “socially constructed”!! Meaning that what we regard as the “truth” is merely something we’ve agreed on. Take this thing called “gender”: we knew that sex and gender referred to physical and social “facts”, we accepted there was a correlation between the two. No more!! We can now be referred to as “he, she, it, or they” – depending on how we feel about our gender!!
Now, how about that claim which led to an invasion of Capitol Hill, in which people lost their lives?!! The election was rigged because Trump and his partisans say it was rigged!! If in the beginning God created the world with His “word”, then it seems that our world can now be created by some folks simply uttering their “word”!!
So, in Guyana, the Opposition insists there was no attempted rigging!!
…Kenyan turmoil
Did you follow those riots in Kenya that almost toppled Ruto’s govt? Now they’d done everything – and then some – on what’s being suggested to resolve our political impasse. Like us, free and fair elections were returned in 1992. They tried power sharing with parties – and leaders; decentralization; cultural policies; electoral reform; counting at the place of poll; POSTING OF EVERY SINGLE 44000+ SOPs on the internet so that everyone could check and add up votes themselves!!
All of this took place after disputed elections in 2007 led to 1300 persons being killed in riots and the constitution being changed to allow the above innovations with the 2008 “National Accord and Reconciliation Act”. So, there were elections in 2013, then 2017. The latter was objected to and was reversed by the Supreme Court, and new elections were held.
Now, the 2022 elections were won by Ruto, the outsider, but yet today – after committing troops to Haiti – he’s in the doghouse!
Can’t please everyone!
…punctuation
Some readers have been asking about your Eyewitness’ use of a combined exclamation and question marks – !?! – in this space!! Now, this ain’t his invention. Would you believe it represents asking a question with a raised eyebrow – an “interrobang”!?
