Laptopgate

Feb 09, 2011 Features / Columnists, Stella Says

In 1972, a group of five men broke into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters located in the Watergate office complex in Washington, DC. There were lies flying left and right and the media was accused of being malicious for attempting to expose the lies. Poor, poor politicians. They always seem to forget the people are the ones in charge.
Lies are funny things. When you tell a lie, you then have to create an entire alternate reality that correlates with the lie. Trouble is that sometimes reality and the alternate reality do no mesh and the whole lie unravels.
What makes lies even funnier is when those telling the lies think those who expose the lies cannot prove the lies were indeed spoken, but then it comes to light that those who expose the lies knew the truth all along and had the hard facts to prove it. It is enough to make a person laugh and laugh and laugh.
This is what happened with the Watergate scandal. As evidence mounted against the President Nixon’s staff, which included former staff members testifying against them in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations. Recordings from these tapes implicated the president, revealing that he had attempted to cover up the break-in.
The problem is that when caught in a lie, some people will continue with the lie even with the truth staring them in the face. There was a time my youngest son lied to his dad about something, even though his dad knew the truth all along. His dad asked him over and over to tell the truth, but the boy just continued to lie. We counted that he told that lie over 100 times and just would not admit the truth.
However, even when those who lie, refuse to tell the truth – though it is put on display for all to see – that does not negate the truth. The lie does not replace reality with the lie’s alternate reality. The truth is still the truth and a lie is still a lie. What happens then is that the one who told the lie continues to live in the alternate reality of that lie while the rest of the world lives in the real world.
Now this is such a comical state and very embarrassing to watch. While the liar is pretending that the lie is real, the rest of the world looks on knowing the truth. We shake our heads and try not to laugh. As the liar insists the lie is real, we even pat the liar on the back and patronisingly agree as we snicker inside from the amusement of it all.
On August 5, 1974, a previously unknown audiotape from June 23, 1972, was released. Recorded only a few days after the break-in, it documented Nixon and a presidential aid meeting in the Oval Office and formulating a plan to block investigations by having the CIA falsely claim to the FBI that national security was involved. According to Wikipedia, the contents of this tape persuaded President Nixon’s own lawyers, Fred Buzhardt and James St. Clair, “The tape proved that the President had lied to the nation, to his closest aides, and to his own lawyers – for more than two years.”
The connection between the break-in and Nixon’s re-election campaign committee was highlighted by media coverage. In particular, investigative coverage by Time, The New York Times, and especially The Washington Post, fuelled focus on the event. The coverage dramatically increased publicity and consequent political repercussions.
As the Watergate scandal proves, the lengths to which those who tell a lie will go to cover up their indiscretion knows no bounds. And if for some reason the lie is exposed beyond a shadow of a doubt, those who lie then attempt to push the blame for that lie on someone else. They say those who expose the truth are being venomous or unpatriotic. What a boring diversion technique.
The real truth is that if the lie had never been spoken in the first place, there would not have been a need to expose the truth. Moreover, when it comes to government, the people have a right to the truth. If the government is behaving itself, there is no reason not to speak the truth.
And don’t give me any of that nonsense about how the people cannot handle the truth. Selling the people short is just as dishonest as lying to them. If only politicians had noses that grew longer when they lied like Pinocchio.
Really now, is it so very difficult to speak the truth? Let me see, if someone asked me how many laptops I bought this year, could I answer in truth? Yep, no problem at all. How about you? How many laptops have you bought this year? Not a difficult question to answer at all is it? So why all the lies?

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