We are “domestic consumption”

The overriding message coming out of the WikiLeaks leak of diplomatic cables is one of disrespect. You, me, all of us, we are the “domestic consumption” that the contents of the cables sought to avoid being consumed by. Be we American, Yemeni, German, Russian, Swedish, Korean or citizens of just about any country on the face of this planet, we are apparently untrustable with the truth. We are just too stupid, too happy and busy consuming, too ready to pay unquestioningly for government. A government which does not think so much of us that we can be trusted to hear the honest truth from those whom we entrust to lead us, and all paid for with our money.

Really?! If somebody walked up to you on the street and told you lies while picking your pocket, and then came up to you a few weeks later and asked for a character reference – what would you say? Yet you will be asked to vote for or support these same politicians/kings/leaders again soon, the very same ones who thought so little of you that their truth was too good for you to hear. What will it take to make you change your behavior? Perhaps the lying pickpocket needs to kick you in the groin before you’ve had enough?

Much of the reason that you cannot be trusted with their truth is because you would, quite rightly, disagree with them. You might even object strongly that they were either lying to you before they got to power, or they’re lying to you now that they have power, but one way or another: they are liars. The thing about lying, that we all know instinctively, is that mostly it is the liar that is damaging themselves when they lie; it is only when we are made a fool of by their lying that we feel ourselves to have been damaged by their lies. And that is the test we tend to apply to situations like these WikiLeaks: do we feel foolish in the light of the disclosures?

If you can steal yourself to take a deeply cynical view of your world and your compatriots, then you are less likely to feel foolish. Think cynically enough and you can let the duplicity of your leaders roll off your back. But you will have to dig yourself a little deeper into the mire with each spade-full of cynicism you heap on your already weary view of the world. If you allow cynicism to dominate your thinking, you lose hope, you lose sight of the better world you wish for and you lose the impetus to make your dreams come true. Cynicism is a self-engorging downward spiral to abject aspirational poverty.

Feel foolish. Be proud to expect better. Let it sting a little, and take the rise to garner up some gumption for something different. You have every right to expect others to live by the standards you hold yourself to and, if nothing else, the WikiLeaks show that our so called leaders do not hold themselves to anything like the standards we hold ourselves to. The only thing likely to be missing from a society run honestly by government that trusts and respects its citizens is quite as many rich people, not such a bad trade really.

Let us become the domestic consumers they are so frightened of. Let us consume them with a repudiation of their distrust, let us consume the disrespect they have shown us and regurgitate it as urgent change. Let us demonstrate that they were right to be scared of the impact of their lies on us. We, the domestic consumers of truth, hereby declare the end times of the privileged promoters of deceit. We fear not your positions of privilege nor your mountains of wealth, you have squandered our trust and betrayed your weakness as furtive agents of guile.