Our standards for truth and personal integrity have deteriorated to such an extent that it is hard to believe anyone about anything.  This widespread lack of honesty is leading us toward ruin.

Think about it.

Our radio, TV, and major newspaper information sources are owned by a very few international corporations that control what they want and don’t want us to know.  Remember, lies are not only what is said, but also what is not said.  These media conglomerates regularly receive “talking points” from government officials which they are supposed to publish and broadcast to the general population.

Thus, our media outlets have become part of our society’s propaganda machinery.

Further, the “news” we do receive has become cheap entertainment and useless visceral tidbits.  It is designed to distract us from real issues. We get bombarded about Paris Hilton, plane wrecks, murders, typhoons, and gay marriage, but receive very little information about world and domestic issues. This is manipulative and dishonest.

Today, chances are that most people will accurately recite a sports team’s statistics, a racing car’s performance, and celebrity divorce details more readily than they can locate the Ukraine on a map, name the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, or talk intelligently about deflation.

A democracy assumes there is an informed public.  Today, the average American citizen is not informed, and as a result has forfeited much of the freedom and rights granted by living in a democratic society.  The sad part of it is the average American is unaware that this has actually happened. That’s because he is told by the media that he is free and living in the best society on earth.  Unfortunately, that’s just propaganda.

Remember, dishonesty comes in two forms:  What is said and what is not said.  Having information about societal issues withheld and instead being fed meaningless information is dishonest.

Our society’s dishonesty isn’t only pushed from the government and media down to the masses. It also occurs between government agencies and between the government and the media.  Political appointees, in order to protect their careers, intentionally “color” their reports with misleading information.  Therefore, as one government agency lies to other agencies, the decisions based upon these erroneous reports are usually wrong, and always waste tax dollars.

Similarly, government agents openly lie to the media, hoping they will report the information to the public in order to gain a desired effect.  As an example, the government will tell the media that the mortgage lender Freddie Mac is financially solid, so that investors will not sell its stock.  The media broadcast this, only to have Freddie Mac declare insolvency a week later, sending its stock plummeting.

These are examples typical of our modern day Tower of Babel.  Consider this: Lies told to a person who seeks the truth are similar to speaking to that person in a language he does not understand.

Lies led us into our current mess and we will have a difficult time recovering from it because we don’t have enough accurate facts upon which to base corrective action.  Our culture of lying to each other has rendered much of the information we have as useless.

For the past 8 years, our political leadership has consistently lied to us.  As we plainly see now, their actions have put us near bankruptcy, have weakened our domestic security, and destroyed our international reputation. 

Let’s not forget that the administration knowingly lied about the reasons for our going to war with Iraq and how much it would cost.  If the war were to end today, it will have cost us $3.2 trillion.  When we entered into the war, we were told that the oil revenues from Iraq would pay for its cost.

The cost of the war, plus no-bid contracts issued as political favors, and financial corruption have caused our national debt to triple, while our budget and trade deficits have doubled.

Finally, the administration’s  policies concerning the torture of war prisoners has caused an increase in the number of terrorists worldwide and foreign public opinion ratings of the US to fall by nearly half.

So that we can avoid the consequences of becoming next Tower of Babel society, each of us needs to become intolerant of lies and those who lie.  Remember what John said in the New Testament: “The truth shall make you free.”