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False Witness

I often think about a novel written years ago by the actor Hugh Laurie entitled The Gun Seller. It is many things at once, including well-written, suspenseful, funny; one of the key plot points (at least to me) had to do with prioritizing the Ten Commandments.

Specifically, the protagonist interacts with a character who he doesn't get to know well but likes and respects to the degree that he does know him. This character is killed and a forgery arranged to make it seem as if he had been responsible for a purchase.

The purchase is not huge in and of itself but is the linchpin in a series of events leading to a large number of people being killed if permitted to proceed unimpeded. The rest of the novel then follows the protagonist in his attempts to impede these events.

The victim had been working to prevent such things from happening; putting the purchase in his name was an act of cruelty by the antagonist to his memory.

The protagonist at a point of despair wonders if bearing false witness against someone isn't in the grand scheme of things worse than killing them. This isn't in the context of a fib; this is in the context of subverting the purpose of the victim's life.

A lie, when it is the changing of the course of a river of truth by 180 degrees, is a monstrous act, with repercussions stretching out for decades.

I live in the time of a grand lie. Former President Trump decided that he didn't want to lose reelection and with the help of his quislings decided to lie about losing, to claim that the election was rigged. He never provided evidence in the course of 63 lawsuits, but a large number of influencers decided it was in their best interests to support Trump's lie and now we are surrounded by citizens who claim that Trump won and a new generation of candidates for office in the midterms swearing that they won't accept the outcome if they lose.

If things go poorly (not just in the midterms but afterward) we may lose our tradition of electing leaders in our country. 

A monstrous lie from a childish man can have consequences for generations to come.

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