A GUY'S VIEW

One prophet said that the human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? The longer I have lived the more I have come to appreciate the truth of this statement.

Selfishness is an unfortunate condition of the human heart. It comes naturally to us to look out for number one, and we always place ourselves in that position. This is contrary to Christian principles, but our claim upon that religion seldom gives us pause from selfishness. 

 

Some persons will stop at nothing to promote themselves and their interests above all else. Many persons have cause to pledge allegiance to concepts that are greater than them, but pledges are quickly forgotten when they conflict with personal interests. 

 

The recent Presidential election in the United States gives us an intriguing point of reference. It is not unusual for politicians to say unkind things about each other. It was good theatre when Donald Trump promised to jail Hillary Clinton, but theatre was all it was. However, later events have revealed that not all of his unusual words and activities were simply election theatre. 

 

The American intelligence community concluded some time ago that Russia had been interfering in the American election process. Mr. Trump was sufficiently sure of the Russian activity to publicly announce that they should reveal Hillary Clinton’s erased emails.

 

Mr. Trump kept saying that the only way he could lose the election is if it were rigged. Reality suggested the opposite: that was the only way he could have won. He apparently knew of what he spoke.

 

Given the history of relations between the United States and Russia, an American Presidential candidate accepting the electronic intrusion of Russia into an American election may be considered almost treasonous. However, Trump regarded such an intervention as being in his personal interest. Along with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), it won him the election.

 

The FBI had a stellar reputation as a law enforcement agency. President Obama, obviously influenced by this reputation, appointed a Republican, James Comey, to head that institution. The President thought that law enforcement should be above partisan politics. He put country above politics. In doing so, he incorrectly judged James Comey by his own standards. 

 

Comey was of a different mind. For him, his political interest overrode his national responsibility to lead an apolitical investigatory bureau. There are more who think like him than those who thought like Obama.

The American case is easy to cite because it is so obvious and so public. But there is nothing about that situation that would not be replicated here if the circumstances were similar. There is plenty of evidence to confirm that many of our people are largely of the mind of Trump and Comey. 

 

Almost every week in this country we see instances of professional leaks from persons in position of public trust. It is unlikely that the majority of these persons stop to think about the long-term effects of their conduct in terms of whether they are forever undermining the integrity of the country’s governance systems. We change Governments ever so often. What should we expect when the shoe is on the other foot?

 

False news has taken the expression of political self-interest to a new low. Motivated by a fake news report, a man drove to a pizzeria in Washington and started shooting. Investigations revealed that the man believed that the pizza shop was a child trafficking location. A fake report stated that Hillary Clinton was heading that trafficking site. He believed that he was protecting the community from that evil woman. Fortunately, no one was killed. 

Barbadians have not been slow to adopt this new technique of trying to influence public opinion. Persons invest lots of time in developing false stories about politicians and circulate them via Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media. The darkness of the human heart creates a great desire for negativity, so such “news” never lacks a circulator.

 

The incidence and effect of false news is not limited to bad politicking. Persons circulate stories about crime and potential crimes that are bogus and are designed to engender fear in the minds of Barbadians. Fairly often there is a story of caution, warning persons of some scary event that never happened. 

 

During periods of rainy weather, there have been stories of approaching storms that were not true. There have been pictures of flood damage that were copied from earlier events or from other countries and purported to be local in nature. The frequency of these false events unsettle unsuspecting citizens and renders all news uncertain. 

 

This has got so bad in the United States that some people see it as a form of domestic terrorism. It has also been compared to the methods used by ISIS to recruit terrorists. Indeed, it can have the same unsettling effect. 

 

Lack of trust in mainstream news organisations and the lack of integrity of many who write for them, lead persons to be distrustful of their news reports. We have all been exposed to the sensational newspaper headlines which sit above malicious stories. Persons are, therefore, more willing to resort to non-traditional sources of news for their information. Unfortunately, this can be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

 

Electioneering by spreading lies, dirty rumours and innuendo is not new, but those who would have done this years ago did not have the tools of modern social media to give them almost universal reach. But political harm may be the least of our concerns in the near future. Impressionable young people will be harmed and may be set up to harm others as a result of this activity. This could lead to suicides and violence against others. And shape our relationships with each other for a long time to come.