The Truth Will Set You Free....

*this entry was origionally posted on MySpace last summer....

Prerequisite for this entry:

Bloggers Learn the Price of Telling Too Much

The above article is an interesting piece I found today on CNN. For those of you too lazy to actually read it, the overall message is that young people are irresponsibly fond of the truth, god forbid, and are shamelessly posting things about their personal lives online, for all to see, instead of being secretive and ashamed of everything they do. For example, Alan Keyes’ daughter dared to disclose her sexual orientation on her blog during her father’s political campaign! Gasp! Didn’t she realize that her right to be open about her sexuality was going to bite her conservative, homophobic father in the ass? These young people today… Not wanting to lie and hide the truth about themselves and what they think in order to save face and gain political power… how selfish…

"I would bet that in the 2016 election, somebody's Facebook entry will come back to bite them," the article quotes. Hmmm… that’s right. People talk about drinking and drugs and sexuality on their blogs. Gasp! And we all know that all politicians have the highest of moral standards. I mean I bet none of them have ever done anything like use drugs or have premarital sex or cheat on a spouse or have internet sex with an underage boy. Of course not.
Now obviously, posting your phone number or address or making libelous accusations about your ex-best friend is probably not a good idea. But when did honesty cease to be the best policy? Let’s take Bill Clinton as a case study (clearly an example of someone who was afraid to tell the truth.) Had he just come clean in the first place about his little White House romp, I think a lot of trouble could have been averted. Or better yet, what would have happened if he had come out in the beginning and said “So, me and Hil have an open marriage based on our work and political partnership. I schlep around with any young thing in a skirt I can get my hands on and she’s fine with it.”

Why couldn’t he have told the truth about smoking pot? I mean seriously, does anyone actually believe he didn’t inhale? What a gianourmous crock of shit. Even if that were true he should be lambasted for wasting weed! I hear that is a major party fowl. Why couldn’t he have said, “Yeah, like millions of other Americans I smoked pot during the sixties and seventies? This is what I did then and why. This is what I do now and why.”

My question is: do Americans truly expect each other to maintain the standards that we are all lying to uphold? Would we have voted for (insert favorite politician here) if they hadn’t lied about whatever it is they lied about in order to get elected. Do we need the lie in order to give ourselves an out, to continue the facade we’ve created? I don’t think we truly believe that everyone lives the cookie-cutter life they pretend to live, and yet, maybe we can’t bare the truth of it all, and so we need them to lie.

My other, less complex theory is that the politicians do it to themselves. If they would just be honest from the beginning, it wouldn’t be a big deal. I mean, I think most Americans are sensible enough to realize that people are all the same and they should be straightforward. Perhaps they would even respect it. No one could blackmail you or expose your dirty secrets to the tabloids if you were honest about it in the first place. Maybe all the lying and covering up sensationalizes the issue, kind of like real-estate inflation. At first, the “indiscretion” would have cost around $80,000, a reasonable price considering… but because of all the hype and secrecy and attention, the public begins to think it’s worth more and more and more and then next thing you know your piece of shit “indiscretion” in the middle of nowhere is gonna cost you half a million dollars. If only you’d just paid the price in the beginning before letting things get out of hand. Get my point?

The rest of the world needs to stop telling us that who we are and what we do is wrong and shameful and unique to us and should be hidden from society. I refuse to lie about anything that I have done. It doesn’t define me. It won’t control me. Will I have to answer lots of questions about why my car was frequently parked at Pamela’s lingerie and porn shop between the years of 2003 and 2005 when I run for president? Probably. But when the American people hear the amazing deal I was getting on indoor tanning, I really think they will understand. The truth, after all, will set you free.