2) It's so tempting to follow the path of Revelation 12, where the story of the War in Heaven is told...revealed. Another tempting path pops up. In Genesis, which is now likely my favorite Book of the Bible, we learn of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
3) Consider this little playful numbered analysis:
1) Truth
2) Falsehood (i.e. lies and the lying liars who tell them)
3) Good
4) Evil
Something simple arises. Truth is good. Lies are evil.
How about that?
4) Moving perhaps too quickly, I bounce over to my beloved Master Sun Tzu. Well, him and me, we're a team. He assumes but I explain, it is a moral mandate to lie to your enemies. Allow me...
The Scopelliti Doctrine: It Is A Moral Mandate To Lie To Your Enemies.
5) Ethics is an ancient thing. Making a claim like the one I did above is no small thing, I assure you. I believe I am offering an innovation in the field of ethics. Lying to your friends is bad. Lying to your enemies is good. It's more than just good. It is required.
6) Be patient with me, we have to stick this through. Lying to your enemies is NOT a necessary evil. It is a necessary good. Telling the truth to your enemies has a name. Treason. And it is the worst crime there is. It demands execution. If convicted, you must be shot at dawn.
7) Why dawn. Why shoot traitors at dawn? There is a reason. Because we must not allow the sun to rise on another day (after this one) with this traitor still alive. It is a harsh logic. Days count. Treason counts. Truth given to enemies is evil. Please contemplate that.
8) The logic inverts. Lies told to friends are evil. No, not all of them! Does this outfit make me look good, honey? Yes, dear. It does not matter if it is true or false. Your beloved's feelings are more important than the absolute truth of the outfit's values.
9) A lie of love is a good thing. Try to avoid them, when possible. But, push and shove, lie all day long to ensure your love's joy in life. And never confess. Her joy is the real truth anyway. The joy she sparks in your soul, moment by moment is the real truth anyway.
10) Where is the real evil? It is the lie that you are a friend when in fact you are an enemy. The ethics invert again. A spy MUST, by definition of his function, execute this precise lie or FAIL in his mission. Spies are liars. They employ trust, falsely.
11) Funny thing. My spy is good. Your spy is evil. Go figure. In some strange way, I say all spies are good. I love spies. I even know a few, believe it or not. I've got one in mind in particular who lied to me, and well, I still love him anyway.
12) A funny thing happened on the way to the grocery store last night. I got a text message from a beloved and well trusted friend. I responded, and posted a tweet that did amazing things. Here's the tweet:
https://t.co/WCZnVcUISd
13) There is a truth and a lie here. The lie in the tweet - of which I was unaware - is that this is NEW information. It is not. We'll talk about that more. The truth is, the information is VALUABLE. Contemplate that.
14) Old as the information is - and it is! - it was new to me. Notice the focus. Is it new? No. New to me? Yes. Is is true or false? That is a very serious question. That's a question at Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil level. Forget new. Focus on true. Or false.
15) We return to ancient things now. There is a single term that, if I could, I would enforce in all education for every student no later than age 13. Epistemology. It is a Greek word. Episteme = Knowledge. Ology = Study. It is the Queen of Philosophy. Imagine that.
16) Who among us has studied science, seriously? That is from an historical and yes, philosophical perspective. If you have, few though you may be, you will understand when I say that Physics is the Queen of Science. Every other science wishes it was Physics.
17) Why might that be? Because when Physics says something is true, all other sciences bow. Force = Mass X Acceleration. No one will argue. Energy = Mass X the Speed of Light Squared. No one will argue.
18) Did Hillary Clinton have Seth Rich assassinated?
Someone will argue.
Not me, mind you. I don't have the slightest question. But many do.
19) The more I think about it, the more profound last night's little tweet grows. I happily put it forward in my own name. I didn't take the time to think about the following fact. In my name means MY validation. Now that was a failure. A very real and important failure.
