Truth and Haiti

Two bits of wisdom, from the philosopher Mulder, came to mind this weekend: "I want to believe" and "The truth is out there."

I want to believe...in Haiti's democracy. I want to believe in honesty when former President Jean Bertrand Aristide extolled liberation theology, when he wanted justice and transparency. I want to believe that he really did do his best to serve the poor of his country. I know his hands were wrenched behind his back: his resources were blocked and his measures killed. Of course US-owned sweatshops wouldn't want him to raise the minimum wage to a dollar a day. I want to believe his decisions were only unwise in that he based them on hopes of honesty from his colleagues, that he suffered only from falsely believing the world would treat him as another democratic leader. I want to believe that the chimeres were a desperate group of young people called upon at a desperate final hour, that he really did only lose control. I want to believe that the person the people so overwhelmingly cast their hopes in was and is a good man.

The truth is out there, but it's sinking deeper every day. Despite all I want to believe, I know I must believe the truth. But how can I find the truth? Propaganda is so entrenched in our culture that it's unrecognizable. We see authority, and we believe it as truth. Any common establishment newspaper around the world will proclaim that Aristide was overthrown by a "popular uprising" or a "rebel movement." Who were these "people"? They were extreme right-wingers, armed by the US, trained in the Dominican Republic. They were the disgruntled minority rich, fueled and nurtured by our majority, ruling rich. Among the obvious propaganda, I find things I don't want to believe, but that seem like truth. I know MINUSTAH is murdering civilians, but are they also fighting the gangs?

News is not truth. News is feeds us what it wants us to believe...what we want to believe.

In George Orwell's 1984, the ministry of truth is really the ministry of lies, and the ministry of peace is responsible for making war. With such a web of snide deals and ulterior motives that links the allies and the enemies, how far are we from an Orwellian reality?