The Writer's Hypocritical Oath
by John Wolf
“The most effectual engines for pacifying a nation are the public papers... A despotic government always keeps a kind of standing army of news writers who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, invent and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper.” —Thomas Jefferson to G. K. van Hogendorp, Oct. 13, 1785.
Interesting quote and from the writer's perspective, one we must be the vanguards for. As the New Year unfolds, we will see things in print that will be the design of those that would sway opinions and attempt to brick and mortar a wall around your mind and pour behind that wall the liquid of deceitful quest.
Writers have the responsibility to use their talent to correct such skullduggery and break down such walls and expose the purpose of those who create deceit. Who else could?
“'I heard’ has become the currency of the unvetted. Amateur writers, in the form of blogs, web sites, radio talk shows, infotainment TV, and loosely edited print media have only to state ‘I heard’ and it suddenly takes on a life of its own." This is a quote from Mr. Fox from the San Diego Press Club. His words aptly describe the impact of information blast that the public must endure.
As a participant in opinion blasting, I try to aim at the truth, but what I perceive to be the truth may be total blasphemy to you. Sorry if I peppered you in the past. But all this bantering does keep the writer employed or at least gives them the reason to buy pen and ink.
When we write up the blurbs and synopses for our books, short stories, and press releases, is that a form of deception? Of course it is. Most of our stories aren't going to change anyone's life or cause new worlds of wonder and open our minds to life among the aliens of a distance star system. The non-fiction writers are just as apt to expand the usefulness of their pitch as well, cure warts only if you read my book. I don't think so, but it does bring me to my point.
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As writers we take a silent hypocritical oath that says it's okay to use words that broaden thought and create new ideas, thrill those that are bound to easy chairs, or put a smile on a face creased with doubt and worries. We walk a thin line. Where it becomes a poor choice of words is when we write those words of politics.
Notice the word policy and police only differ by one letter, one regulates the mind and the other the physical. When we stray into writing concerning politics, we vent emotions of telling others how to live their lives. Pushed to any extent and wars can be started.
So, with the New Year and the new frontier before us, exacerbated by the poorest economy in US history (in terms of money values lost), what will we write about? Where is the truth? Who knows what's going on? How do you start the first sentence? Our lives are on another road. We took a fork in the road unwilling and are in the boonies. This road is ill maintained. There are potholes everywhere.
My hope is some of you will use your talent of observation
and write words of wisdom and help guide us back onto the road we were
accustom to. We need to be comforted by the warm words of understanding
that will wrap us and keep out the cold. So here's to the pen-pushers—hip,
hip, hooray! May the hypocrisy be minimized and the truth be let free.
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John Wolf keeps the kennels clean at the Fox&Quill Hunting Club JohnWolfBooks.com |
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