A Swiftian Journey to the Island of the Despicables
Gulliver’s final ocean voyage brought him to an island governed by a race of dignified and rational creatures, the Houyhnhnms, who had the form of horses. They shared the island with gross and brutish animals, the Yahoos, who physically resembled humans but behaved more like apes. Upon his arrival, Gulliver was mistaken by the noble horses as a Yahoo.
After a series of pointed discussions with Gulliver about his world, the Houyhnhnms came to understand that though humans had the gift of speech, they were more dangerous and despicable than the Yahoos, given their proclivity for lying.
“Having occasion to talk with my Master [the head Houyhnhnmn] of lying and false representation, it was with much difficulty that he comprehended what I meant, although he had otherwise a most acute judgment. For he argued thus: ‘that the use of speech was to make us understand one another, and to receive information of facts; now, if any one said the thing which was not, these ends were defeated, because I cannot properly be said to understand him; and I am so far from receiving information, that he leaves me worse than in ignorance; for I am led to believe a thing black, when it is white, and short, when it is long.’ And these were all the notions he had concerning that faculty of lying, so perfectly well understood, and so universally practiced, among human creatures.”
When Gulliver further informed his Houyhnhnmn Master of the corrupt state of the law and politics and the human appetite for war, his Master was aghast that “a creature pretending to reason could be capable of such enormities.” He furthermore “dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself. He seemed therefore confident, that, instead of reason we were only possessed of some quality fitted to increase our natural vices.”[1]
Welcome to MAGAmerica, where “saying the thing which is not” is normal speech, animating a culture of disinformation, where citizens, many as gullible as Gulliver, are told by their Master not to believe things they have seen, things they have heard, and things cemented in historical fact. (Master Trump: “Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. … What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”)[2]
Consider the recent frustration of Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan-appointed federal judge who, in the process of passing judgment on an unrepentant January 6th Insurrectionist said he's been shocked at the magnitude of MAGA lying, "shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite [the] history" of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
"The Court is accustomed to defendants who refuse to accept that they did anything wrong. But in my thirty-seven years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream. . .I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness.”[3]
Lamberth also denounced politicians, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elise Stefanick, who said the "rioters behaved 'in an orderly fashion' like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted January 6 defendants as 'political prisoners' or even, incredibly, 'hostages.'" Lamberth called these comments "preposterous," and “feared that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country.[4]
"The Court cannot condone the shameless attempts. . . to misinterpret or misrepresent what happened. . .So let me set the record straight, based on what I've learned presiding over many January 6 prosecutions: On January 6, 2021, a mob of people invaded and occupied the United States Capitol, using force to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power mandated by the Constitution and our republican heritage. The rioters interfered with a necessary step in the constitutional process, disrupted the lawful transfer of power, and thus jeopardized the American constitutional order. This was not patriotism; it was the antithesis of patriotism."[5]
Two additional events make this a particularly fertile season for “saying things which are not:” the ongoing Republican primary and the former president’s numerous criminal trials, both of which keep his name, his face, and his open spigot of lies splashing across our TV and computer screens and our newspapers. Every day and every night.
My Swiftian Nightmare: The USS MAGAverse is a broken-down ocean liner guided by a delusional captain with a bad attitude and a worse sense of direction. His rudderless ship has hit an obvious iceberg, causing it to shatter and sink in the wild seas. Survivors tread water, hoping not to drown in the choppy waters. However, only those grasping the cloak of the bloated, floating captain survive. When they wash up on the shores of a red island, known as the “Island of the Despicables,” the captain is hailed by by hordes of screaming, cross-eyed, three-legged creatures who hop instead of walk. They greet him as their king and worship him as a god.
[1] (Quotations from “Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels. Italics Mine.) Shout out to Roger Lund.
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/25/politics/donald-trump-vfw-unreality/index.html
[3] [https://www.axios.com/2024/01/26/reagan-appointed-judge-jan-6-trump-republicans]
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
Great stuff