Uncommon sense of the truth, or why do people like the bad guy?

October 26, 2008 by gbrown

Ask any hollywood actor about the role they’d next like to be cast in and its inevitably the bad guy. The reason? “It’s more fun”.

The reason why we admire the guy we’re often supposed to hate is that he’s consistent to his values, whatever they are.

Watch any budding singer nervously waiting for the panel’s response on Xfactor or Idol and it’s Simon Cowell’s opinion they all value. Hate him as you may, he’s upfront and consistent in what he says and believes.

That’s the reason we loathe so many politicians; politicians get lost in popularity contests and are haunted by the mistakes of their peers rather than motivated by the opportunity to make a difference.

Indiana Jones is the eternal heroic archetype that is the antithesis of the modern day politicians. A rougeish swashbuckler that has strong, unswerving principles yet riddle with imperfections and human weaknesses that would fill a year’s supply of tabloids.
Tony Blair epitomizes this paradox of the good guy we love to hate. With youthful zeal he took office ushering a change following 4 terms of stale and decaying political infighting. His motives were noble and his words resonated with the optimism of the time reflected in their party anthem “Things can only get better…”

Yet Blair’s downfall was no different from any professional politician - they feared making the mistake that would exocet their career.

That’s why I can’t help but admire politicians and pundits, like Cowell, who say it as it is and you can either like it or lump it. Names such as Ron Paul, George Galloway and commentators Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore. Whether you agree with their political standpoint or not you know exactly what you’re getting.

Hitchen’s “Love, Poverty and War” is an interesting collection of his writings. I don’t always agree with what he says but I admire his quest for finding the truth.

His opening chapter demonstrates his bravery in taking on an icon of hero worship - Winston Churchill. Common Sense holds that Churchill was a heroic, stoic leader who galvanised the masses with his wartime rhetoric. Yet, how much of this “aura” is genuine?

Obviously somewhere between 0 and 100 percent. The nub of this riff is, however, not how much is true but how people react to being inquisitive about the nature of the truth.

Our Common Sense creates a communal identity that stands challenged when tested by such questions. If, for example, Churchill wasn’t as heroic as I once thought does that itself challenge the nature of “Britishness” and thus my own identity (should I care about such things). If I did, the question would be an uncomfortable one and best shouted down.

So you have to respect the names I’ve already mentioned in having the balls to stand up for truth in the face of Common Sense constantly shouting them down. Ron Paul, for example, is on record stating that US foreign policy is the root cause of the Sep 11th terrorist attacks at a time when hysteria prevented many from making such claims for fear of being, in modern McCarthyesque terms, labelled “unpatriotic” or, worse still “siding with the terrorists”.

Hitchens is equally admirable.

He publicly is critical of religion for its influence on modern society which he sees generally as negative. “God is not great” is the title of one of his books, giving you an idea on where he stands on the whol creationist debate. I don’t agree with him on many of his points but I respect his ability to demand an open forum for enquiry which questions the rationale behind so much of our Common Sense when so many try to shout it down with emotive terms such as “unAmerican” or “blasphemous”.

It’s ironic, then, I should use a Churchill quote in summary: “the truth is incontrovertible”.

Ironically though Common Sense is often the main reason why it will never win out because the good guy, like the politician has to do everything but make a mistake and the truth is all about inviting criticism in.

Currently Reading: “Love, Property and War: Journeys and Essays” by Christopher Hitchens

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