Getting Over It & Getting On With It

A form of manipulation through persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying in an attempt to destabilize and delegitimize a target. Its intent is to sow seeds of doubt in the targets, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity (Wikipedia, 2016d).

The term isn't new (it goes back to the late 1930's), but I've never heard it used to describe an election... until now.

In my last I pointed out that when we use words as a means to an end rather than a vehicle for truth, we cheapen them and ourselves. Do this long enough, and not only will they cease to be vehicles for truth, they'll render it irrelevant. We will arrive at a place where the difference between fact and fiction no longer matters to us--only whether a claim resonates. "Bias" will no longer mean selective data and/or unreliable methods--only whether someone pisses us off. Established and respected media outlets, universities, Governmental agencies and NGO's, and eventually, even science... anything that doesn't mirror our own faces and angry narratives will be dismissed as conspiratorial heresy. The Biblical term for this is hardening our hearts, and the further down this road we go, the more vulnerable we are to anyone with an agenda who knows what match to light. Self-proclaimed "whistle-blowers..." anonymous criminals hiding behind Guy Fawkes masks... Eastern European fake news websites... even Patriot Movement extremists will become persecuted heroes whose words we accept without question, without evidence... and without a second thought. It's little wonder that commentators are now referring this as the Post-Fact Age.

One often hears it said that we should "love the sinner but hate the sin." For years that struck me as little more than hair-splitting rationalization, until it occurred to me that this is precisely what Jesus did... and in all likelihood why He was crucified as well. Those who hate us can be pushed away because they've neither seen, nor cared to know us or hear our stories. If we're to be convicted in any genuinely redemptive sense, those calling us out must meet us face-to-face, and for that to happen they first must acknowledge that we have faces. If they cannot, or will not, we feel justified in turning our faces away from theirs.

Those who do see our faces are another matter however. They have met us face-to-face and embraced our humanity--often in ways we've been unwilling to ourselves. They aren't calling us out to assuage their own narcissistic rage or further any personal agenda... They do so because they know we were made for more than the familiar, self-serving brokenness we've grown comfortable with. Whether they realize it or not, they're God's prophets sent by Him to gird us and lead us where we do not wish to go (John 21:18), but desperately need to... and in our hearts we know it. Contrary to popular belief, love and hate are not opposites--they're far more alike than we may realize. Nothing on this earth evokes the latter like those who genuinely come to us in the former, and in so doing hold a mirror before us that we don't want to see. It's no coincidence that the angry mob wanted Pilate to pardon Barabbus the murderer rather than Jesus (Luke 23:18-25). Nor is it a coincidence that we prefer fake-news rumors about others to properly researched facts that reveal to us who we truly are.

Proverbs tells us, "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion" (Prov. 18:2).

By contrast, David prayed, "Search me God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. 139:23-24).

When we cease to think critically and demand evidence--when we stop questioning whether our indignation is the fruit of love's fierceness or our own narcissistic rage--we become sheep... people who are only interested in expressing our own opinions, and would gladly bear false witness against our neighbor before allowing our hearts to be searched and our anxious thoughts known. There is no clearer sign that we've lost our way.

In the end, the only book anyone will ever read is that of our daily lives. Jesus tells us that a tree is known by its fruit (Luke 6:44), and if every apple lover in the county is lined up at one tree in the orchard, you can bet there's a reason why. The KKK didn't endorse Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, nor either of the Bush's, even though the latter can hardly be called screamin' liberals. There weren't hate crime epidemics after any of their elections either. I'm here to tell you folks, there's a reason why... and like it or not, no matter how indignantly we deny being apple lovers, if the apple tree is where we seek shade from the noonday sun it's only a matter of time before the world starts putting two and two together and coming to the obvious conclusion.

I can't speak for anyone else of course, but if I'd voted for Trump (or more properly, voted against the only person with any chance of defeating him) I'd have seen everything in the aforementioned 12-point list as unintended collateral damage of my vote. Even if I'd felt compelled to endure an apple tree for the long-term good of the orchard, it would seem to me that I carried a big share of the blame for that, and as a sworn apple-hater my first concern would've been doing anything I could to mitigate apple damage. If I didn't want to be seen as an apple-lover, I wouldn't be standing in the shade of the apple tree angrily denying that I was in line...