“Hoax” Mantra for the Willfully Blind

The word “hoax” is one of President Trump’s favorites.

Though AI agents have already left the reservation and hacked away at their digital neighbors, and been used by terrorists to try to develop guided missiles and biological weapons, our President says the widespread fear of AI is all just a hoax.

Though climate change has sped melting of glaciers, caused flooding in Tibet and Nepal, drowned Polar Bears, killed hundreds of thousands in heat waves, and caused mass migrations, our President says it’s all just a hoax.

Though Covid 19 killed millions around the world, Dr. Fauci and all the other health professionals who tried to limit the death and destruction were criminals, and our President says all the worry was just a hoax.

Russian interference with our elections…you guessed it, just a hoax.

The word “hoax” is one of President Trump’s favorite ways of throwing sand in our eyes, and pretending to look like a winner, while he is clueless and willfully blind.

The most famous of all the ancient Greek tragedies is “Oedipus the King.” The great king of Thebes and his wife, Jocasta, are willfully blind. They try with all their might to outrun and hide from the truth and the hard reality of the will of the gods. Because of this the sad remnant of the people of Thebes mourn their dead, struck down by pestilence.

The horrific climax of the play is when Oedipus quite literally and quite ironically blinds himself.

God grant that we elect leaders with a bigger vocabulary than that of our current President. Enough with the word “hoax.”

God grant that we begin to elect people who are willing to open their eyes and deal with reality.

God grant that we elect people who can face complexity and solve pestering problems through the hard but necessary work of cooperation.

Amen.