People naturally love liars and passionately hate the insensitive rubes who tell the truth because the truth would set them free (John 8:31-34), and living the pleasurable lie is worth eternal enslavement to experience the euphoria of instant gratification. The liar, like the alchemists of old, is an evil genius dishing out ‘fool’s gold’ to compensate for his clientele’s inequities in exchange for participating in ‘the big lie’. And politicians who immediately pledge to ‘never lie’ (Jimmy Carter, anyone?) are the most beloved of all liars because, like any artful salesman, their lone goal is to sell lemons to prospective customers by mortgaging their reputation — the consequences be damned.
Whether they are crooked used car salesmen or politicians, or lifelong businessmen like Donald Trump with his pyramid scheme operation through Trump University, they all learned to play the consumer culture like hearts from Hell, to mimic the Devil’s impeccable mastery of intrigues. The most egregious politicians promise a free lunch, yet never disclose just where that mystery meat was purchased nor who actually paid for it. Therefore, it is only natural that most people love liars to the point of idolatry— purchasing their posters, watching their films, reading ‘self-help’ books or accepting Oprah’s truth as the new Gospel — because people unerringly elect the wolf in sheep’s clothing while spurning the hated but reliable Shepherd tending his flock. Gullibility, marinated in the stew of greed, jealousy and dissolution, drive these blithe little sheep blinded by indignation to consume what the wolf in sheep’s clothing rationed until one day the wolf, himself facing starvation as the supply in storage dwindled, devours the last of the flock after revealing he not only had never been part of the flock, but had fed them the mutton of a neighbor whose fleece, white as snow, he now wears.
THE CONSERVATIVE HISTORICAL REVIEW 