The most interesting conversation is not about why Donald Trump lies. Many public figures lie, and he's only a severe example of a common type. The interesting conversation concerns how we come to accept those lies.
Interpretation
This quote prompts reflection on societal acceptance of lies rather than just focusing on the individual who tells them.
Bret Stephens highlights that the focus should not merely be on why a particular individual, like Donald Trump, lies, but rather on the broader societal dynamics that allow such lies to be accepted. This speaks to a deeper philosophical inquiry into truth, perception, and the responsibilities of both leaders and the public in acknowledging and confronting dishonesty.
In practice
During a seminar on ethics in politics, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of holding society accountable.
I routinely interview college students, mostly from top schools, and I notice that their brains are like old maps, with lots of blank spaces for the uncharted terrain. It's not that they lack for motivation or IQ. It's that they can't connect the dots when they don't know where the dots are in the first place.
The more afraid we are of the shadow of racism, the more conscious we might become of our own unsuspected biases.
We live in a world in which data convey authority. But authority has a way of descending to certitude, and certitude begets hubris.
The American birthright belongs, potentially, to everyone. This is unprecedented. Other countries accept migrants on the basis of economic necessity or as a humanitarian gesture. Only in America is it the direct consequence of our foundational ideals.
Like all people, we perceive the version of reality that our culture communicates. Like others having or living in more than one culture, we get multiple, often opposing messages. The coming together of two self-consistent but habitually incomparable frames of reference causes un choque, a cultural collision.
I think the relationship between memory and time is a very deep and tricky one, to tell you the truth. I don't consider memory another sense. I do consider memory that which allows us to think that time flows.
It is necessary that every man have at least somewhere to go. For there are times when one absolutely must go at least somewhere!
Our sanity depends essentially on a narrowness of vision--the ability to select the elements vital to survival, while ignoring the great truths.
A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.
The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions.
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