The last illusion

For the purposes of this blog post I needed a lie uttered by a leading political figure. After a quick look around I found this example from the few days ago. It wasn’t at all difficult to find and there are some bonus lies too – three lies one after the other.

President Joe Biden on Thursday vowed the US would do its part to cut greenhouse gas, pledging America will cut its emissions blamed for climate change by 50 to 52 percent by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, and to set America on a path of zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.

‘The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable. The cost of inaction is mounting,’ the president said in his speech kicking off his Climate Summit.

The signs are not unmistakable, the science is entirely deniable and the cost of inaction is not mounting. Joe Biden is lying. No surprises there but political lying never is surprising. Political actors putting truth before expediency – that would be surprising. Even astonishing.

Not truth, but error has always been the chief factor in the evolution of nations, and the reason why socialism is so powerful to-day is that it constitutes the last illusion that is still vital. In spite of all scientific demonstrations it continues on the increase. Its principal strength lies in the fact that it is championed by minds sufficiently ignorant of things as they are in reality to venture boldly to promise mankind happiness. The social illusion reigns to-day upon all the heaped-up ruins of the past, and to it belongs the future. The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.

Gustave Le Bon – The Crowd; study of the popular mind (1895)