Remember the old adage about removing God as the final judge for your actions?
American corporations went to hell in a hand basket when they kicked God out of the boardroom by showing ethics the door. 1980s. Maybe earlier, but I was there in the late 70s and they still kicked around the notion of ethics in those days. At least in front of one another..
But rather suddenly “right and wrong” was replaced with “legal and illegal”. And then, right on cue after a few years of enjoying the fruits of the new Eden they had constructed, with Law now the highest form of judgment, and risk, the contest descended into being caught, or not being caught.
As a young teenager George Carlin confessed to his priest in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the 50s about planning to go see Becky and feel her up, “Would dat derefore be a sin, dere, Fodder?” The priest replied, “Save your bus fare, George, you’ve already committed it!”
My favorite comedian, but also my saddest one because of his denial of his faith, I always hoped he spoke with a priest those last days in 2008. If I ever do a hippy-dippy version of Satan, George Carlin will be my model.
By the 1990s the corporate world, sans right and wrong, found out the earthly blessings of “not being caught”. But they still had to lie persuasively, and, when needed, to be able to provide at least a scintilla of plausible evidence.
But right on cue, after about 30 years the inevitable occurred when Nature took its next very predictable turn, now that the front office portion of our managed world had enjoyed the fruits of almost endless lying for a full generation, about their brands’ ability to accomplish extraordinary feats, such as Nike causing white men to be able to jump, or that the NFL and NBA could bite the hands that feed them by kissing the behinds of cold-blooded Marxist killers, then not allow their one-time clients, and modern-day “employees”, also known as players, to even mention a word to anyone In public about human freedom…a theme that had defined most of them and their parents for generations.
The last straw.
And for years, at least 40, the American media at its highest levels, New York Times, Washington Post and other major print outlets, and national television media, had had to jump through hoops to be able to come up with plausible justifications for the lies that they often spread.
Not any more.
Since no one actually reads those papers any longer, just open up any web news aggregator, Yahoo, Microsoft, Drudge, or scan Twitter and note the headlined stories. The escalation of unrepentant lies has become palpable, especially between government career bureaucracy and media, almost carefree, as if George Carlin took that bus to go meet Becky anyway….which is what most 16-year old boys think about that first romp in the backseat of dad’s car. (If memory serves.)
When The Washington Post lies these days, usually quoting a kid in the mail room at State or Intel Community, who overheard a portion of a muffled conversation by a front office bureaucrat, then went to his car, pulled his burner phone (in DC everyone has one) and called one of at least a dozen numbers in the press.
WAPO doesn’t even try to disguise it anymore. It’s like that lavender and vanilla oil dip they get only when staying at the finest Hilton in Paris. Total submersion (and submission) to self indulgence.
With accelerating speed they seem to be willing to risk everyone else’s career, and maybe even wealth, thinking they are immune.
Everyone has to get out of the tub and dry off.
So, save the bus fare, WAPO. You’re busted.
