Thoughts on Truth and Power

The November attack by North Korea against its southern neighbor raises the old question of the genesis of dictatorial “power.” How does a Kim Jung Il, a Stalin, or an Ahmadinejad come to power and stay “in power” when their people are so miserable?

The sources of that kind of control leads to thinking about just what is “power.” We think about power in terms such as horse power, purchasing power, muscle power, brain power, or wind power. It is impossible to conceive of any power except in connection with a source. We know useful motive power emanates from rationally developing things in the service of a human objective.

The other power, to convince or persuade, when honestly used is based on truth. It emanates from rational argument, wisdom, experience, reality, logic, proof. It has respect and love for fellow men. A person using this kind of power, the power of persuasion, attempts to illuminate a topic or an idea. To clarify.

Both motive power and persuasive power are based in objective reality and truth. Motive power can’t be faked. It either delivers or it does not. Persuasive power has a more uneven record.

The dishonest user of persuasion, (propaganda, deceit, or fraud) seeks to obfuscate his ideas or agenda, to make them seem complex, beyond the understanding of mere men (the electorate). Or, the deceiver may carefully chose a hot topic laden with emotion that defies cool logic and then presses it upon others. “Disaster is at our door” ushers in bad ideas and then sneaks them quickly into laws no one really understands. Taking advantage of a crisis is the seed of many a demagogues’ ascent to power. First, convince the people of something that is not true or merely half-true, then find the scapegoat (insurance companies, bankers, foreigners, atheists, fundamentalists, the list goes on). Then, based on the falsehood, you pass laws, institute injustice, and rule without much interference from the ruled. Where there is no logic in law, there is no justice. We revert to a jungle ruled by the biggest teeth.

To convince men of an idea’s worth through thoughtful debate and conversation, and over time is the genesis of good law. That path to good law is built into our Constitution through the Amendment Process—a process that takes debate and time and permission (votes) from the consenting-governed. Judges legislating from the bench create the antitheses of this. Unconstitutional laws are curtailing more and more of our right to choose our own course of action. It is the fundamental undermining of America’s promise because poorly considered law results in ever stronger coercion.

Unfortunately, coercion can be an effective substitute for sound ideas if the populace is cowed. Only power that is coercive can cause man to do what he does not see as being in his self-interest or as morally correct. Coercion may be gloved in velvet, or naked, but it is always the threat behind any idea that can not be defended with logic.

The Founder Fathers understood the danger in government always had to do with using the legitimate force of government for illegitimate or secret ends. Instead of guaranteeing freedom, power-seekers would use the apparatus of government to beat us (or coddle us) into submission. Today, abuse of power might flow from the halls of the IRS, TSA, FDA, ATF, or any of many other appointed power brokers, and it is easily used as weapons against the people. Bureaucratic rules, never reviewed by the judicial process of the Constitution, take on the force of law (body scans and pat-downs at airports).

“All unuttered truths turn poisonous,” Nietzsche wrote. The more I think about the abuse of power around the world historically and currently, the more I understand truth as the antidote to abusive political power. The Founding Fathers understood the importance of an individual being able, without fear, to stand up to those in power and tell them and the world where governing policies are destructive or wrong.

Freedom to speak in the public square and freedom to print and analyse the news are enshrined in the Constitution because information and debate are the tools of navigating for the long-run in the real world. Only by freely “uttering” ideas and examining them by debate can we determine whether they are likely to be right for a free people. Any person or group advocating to end debate by taking away the microphone or shouting the speaker down because they disagree with the speaker’s position, is advocating political poison via political correctness.

In an essay by Robert Grudin titled The Truth About Truth, he warns to beware of the man who “rushes you” to accept his truth. To be rushed into an idea stifles thoughtful criticism. It condones “do as I say, not as I do” and doesn’t work well in raising children, nor in running a nation. We find it disgusting when Congress exempts itself from legislation that inhibits or prescribes the actions of less “powerful” citizens. Can it be the truth that a piece of legislation is good for you and me if it exempts Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, or McDonalds?

Speaking truth to those in power can be personally dangerous. To stand up to a strongman and speak of his destructive policies is at least frightening. When the time comes that you have to consider retribution from a bureaucrat, a politician, or any group if you speak, you are on the road to “powerlessness.” That is the time it is most important to speak. Wait too long and you may not even recognize the truth. I often wonder, did anyone live to tell about confronting Mao, Pot Pol, Stalin, Hitler, or Saddam Hussein during their reigns of terror?

There is little hope for North Koreans to overcome the Kim family. The current generations have never known anything other than the Dear Leader’s proclamations of reality. Stalin’s Russians had a better chance when he died in 1953. They at least knew something of the world outside. In Iran, truth is whispered because the people are better educated and have a living memory of freedom. Additionally, they have the internet to communicate with the freer world and be reminded of truth.