Truth on Trial

Truth is on trial. The strength of democracy, and why it has had such enviable staying power, has long been its respect for the truth. Without truth, democracy cannot continue to exist.

Back in the 60s, new democracies were springing into existence the world over following the breakup of colonial empires and the fall of such monstrous anti-truth states as Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia. But now that trend has reversed and numerous regimes are becoming totalitarian under authoritarian strongmen, although more subtle and less combative than their predecessors, led by present day Russia and China.

Yes, most of us do love a good laugh at the prevarications of the truth-challenged, the pathological liars, the reality deniers who insist in louder voice and bolder print that because they repeat something over and over in news broadcasts and social media, it must be true. Truth is what they claim it to be. But who will have that last laugh? It’s difficult enough to find truth in day-to-day dealings with the outside world of commerce and corporate culture and politics, where bending the truth into unrecognizable pretzels is our accepted reality, but there is a line which must never be crossed if we are to be free.

That line is what marks the serious dividing chasm between fair trials and show trials. If there is one place where truth must be held sacrosanct and closely examined it is under oath in a court of law. Laws are the basis of our civilization. “Our judicial system depends on the solemn sworn oath of witnesses to tell the truth,” ominously scrolled across a recent news cast.

A jury should be composed of those who promise to listen to the evidence and come to their decision based solely on the evidence at hand, not predetermined ideas. If any cannot do this then they must step down and be replaced by those who can. When it comes to impeachment, Senators are the jury sworn to uphold these same values, regardless of party politics.

Show trials, like the fake trials held in the old Soviet Union, like the guilty verdicts already determined beforehand in the notorious trials in Nazi era Nuremberg, are now appearing in the guise of scripted charades in world parliaments and congresses where the final verdict is voted along party lines, not the beliefs of conscientious elected individuals.

In the powerful film Judgment at Nuremberg Burt Lancaster as Head Nazi Judge Ernst Janning admits under oath that he had reached his verdict against the old Jew before he ever set foot in the courtroom. Later he tries privately to explain his reasons to American judge Haywood played by Spencer Tracy:

Ernst Janning: Judge Haywood... the reason I asked you to come: Those people, those millions of people... I never knew it would come to that. You must believe it!

Judge Dan Haywood: Herr Janning, it "came to that" the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent.

That’s the pivotal point where truth bolsters democracy. To paraphrase Edward Snowden on the effect of government surveillance of its citizens, any elected government that dispenses lies to maintain control of its citizenry has effectively already ceased to be a democracy.

Lawyers, pundits, politicians, have all flooded the airways with their views. It’s time for ‘the people’, not just in America but in all nations where freedom of speech can still be heard, to speak out loud.

Whistleblowers digging for truth that has been buried under a mountain of lies and dishonest dealings are our modern canaries in the mineshafts of truth. The formula goes something like this: Democracy cannot live without freedom; freedom cannot exist without truth. Lose the truth part, and this house of cards comes crashing down.

Eyes Wide Shut No More! What the Greatest Generation fought so hard for and won over the bodies of so many courageous confreres. Their resounding victory took years and millions of lives to accomplish, but they did not quit. They were our parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles. They were truly relentless. As democracy teeters on the edge we need anew to fight for that truth.

We need transparency. We need heroism.