ELEISON  COMMENTS  CXLII  (April 3, 2010) :  TRUTH,  FAREWELL .

Another voice of truth risks falling silent in the United States
It is not, at least overtly, a voice of Catholic truth, but are not the great problems for truth today not problems specific to Catholics, but problems so basic that they are common to all men ?  Therefore when a columnist and writer of the stature of Paul Craig Roberts, who has outstanding Establishment credentials and who was an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, announces that, apparently out of discouragement, he is laying aside his pen, it is a sad day for all of us.

His farewell article of about ten days ago deals precisely with the universal loss of truth. Its opening section deserves to be quoted at length :  "There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword...when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal or financial interest. Today Americans are ruled by propaganda.  They have little regard for truth, little access to it, and little ability to recognize it" (my underlining). "Truth is an unwelcome entity. It is disturbing. It is off-limits. Those who speak it run the risk of being branded "anti-American", "αnтι-ѕємιтє" or "conspiracy theorist". Truth is an inconvenience for government... and for ideologues."

He goes on, "Today many whose goal once was the discovery
of truth are now paid handsomely to hide it." Examples from many domains prove that "wherever one looks, truth has fallen to money. Wherever money is insufficient to bury the truth, ignorance, propaganda and short memories finish the job." Further examples confirm that "Intelligence and integrity have been purchased by money... Americans, or most of them, have proved to be putty in the hands of the police state." They have been brainwashed by the mainstream media which "do not serve the truth. They serve the government and the interest groups that empower the government".

Fascinatingly, Roberts argues that "America's fate was sealed when the public and the anti-war movement bought the government's 9/11 conspiracy theory. The government's account of 9/11 is contradicted by much evidence. Nevertheless, that defining event of our time, which has launched the USA on interminable wars of aggression and a domestic police state, is a taboo topic for investigation in the media. It is pointless to complain of war and a police state when one accepts the premise on which they are based" (my underlining again). I would only add the religious dimension : how can souls grasp the one true religion of God when they accept the premises on which their whole godless environment is based ?  In the early 2000's many Catholics in the USA did not want to hear sermons emphasizing the fraud of 9/11, but how can souls that are unconcerned to get to the truth, get anywhere near to the true God ? How can souls losing their taste for reality keep any taste for the supreme realities of the soul and the after-life ?

Roberts concludes sadly, "As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off." No, dear Dr. Roberts. The pen is still, despite all appearances, mightier than the sword, only not if it is dropped. Keep writing, however few be the souls that will still read you for the sake of the truth, because such souls, like the Truth, "are mighty and will prevail".                  

Kyrie eleison.