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Wednesday, 25 June 2014 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Several other countries blame foreign powers for the evils in their society. So we are told that the violence against the Muslims by the BBS is a conspiracy by the foreign powers. It seems plausible since no State facing an international investigation into alleged crimes against its people would be so foolish as to deliberately stage more such violence and confine condemnation of such violence to words only. When the elections are held we will see if the motivation was to create an enemy for mobilising the votes of the Sinhala Buddhists
International conspiracies and fear-mongering
We are aware of politicians who during their election campaigns resort to lies and deception, especially when boasting of their own honesty and integrity and condemning their rivals. Lying – meaning an intentional deception of one sort or other, whether through words, gestures, actions, or even inactions and silences – seems to be more prevalent in politics than in almost any other area of public life, even in democracies particularly in what are called ‘popular democracies’ where the politicians are not subject to checks and balances.
Hannah Arendt’s famous maxim that ‘truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues’ is a standard practice in our failed democracy. But it is a worrisome practice when elected leaders spread falsehoods about international conspiracies and engage in fear-mongering to win the favour of the people. Such lies produce a culture of dishonesty in which trust in policymakers and, potentially, democratic governance is undermined.
"Hannah Arendt’s famous maxim that ‘truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues’ is a standard practice in our failed democracy. But it is a worrisome practice when elected leaders spread falsehoods about international conspiracies and engage in fear-mongering to win the favour of the people. Such lies produce a culture of dishonesty in which trust in policymakers and, potentially, democratic governance is undermined"
The trust of the victims will definitely be eroded and they will realise that the State is not there to protect them if the enemy is the Sinhala Buddhist monks. Buddhist monks who committed crimes have hitherto not enjoyed immunity legally. But is the situation changing? Otherwise why is the BBS monk who unleashed the violence not being arrested and produced in courts?
We must be judged by what we do
Moralists tend to see every political lie, no matter how minor, as an ethical crime. Either it compromises the integrity of the individual in question, or it undermines democratic values and fosters a culture of deception and mistrust
Our politicians are great at parading their devotion to the religion. We see them carrying trays of flowers and worshipping ever-so-often. They are able to hoodwink the stupid people. Doesn’t our folk lore refer to the ‘gamarala’ who went to heaven tagging himself to the tail of an elephant? Didn’t they believe that there was a rabbit on the moon? But as someone said, one’s religion is what you do after the ceremony is over. In the last analysis, we must be judged by what we do and not by what we believe.
Hypocrisy is the vice of vices
Abraham Lincoln once defined the hypocrite as the man who murdered both his parents... and pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan. The hypocrite’s crime is that he bears false witness against himself. What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one.
The only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core – Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, 1963.
Our people are very gullible. During the time of Louis XIV, the people when faced with the harassment of the nobles or the officials used to say, “if only the King were to know”. For a long time people everywhere believed the ruler can do no evil.
