Veritas Americana: The Impact of Truth on Social Systems

By James Testerman

To anyone paying attention, it seems as though "The world has gone crazy", but there is still hope for America and for the American people. America has been deceived and usurped for over 100 years, and it is about to get out of hand. Veritas Americana examines how and why America's social systems are crumbling, and exposes who and what is respon

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cornerstone Ltd
• Release date: Oct 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781735779126

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Copyright © 2020 by James Testerman.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Cornerstone Ltd

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Veritas American: The Impact of Truth on Social Systems, James Testerman

ISBN 978-1-7357791-1-9

ISBN 978-1-7357791-2-6 (e-book)

Contents

At the Crossroads

What is Truth

Truth in Antiquity

Truth in the Modern Era

Government

Usurping Constitutional Powers

Truth Redefined Opens the Door

Education

Progressive Education

Science

Economics

Final Thoughts

Bibliography

Index

Appendices

Acknowledgements

How does one begin to acknowledge all of those whom have poured into and made possible the privilege of addressing society on the issue of truth and what it means to society? The list is indeed long and this missive will no doubt pass over many who deserve at least some credit, but for the sake of brevity I have chosen to limit accolades to several components that must herein be given recognition for without them this work could not have been accomplished. First and foremost, I would like to express my enduring and profound appreciation of truth itself because truth alone is the requisite rubric through which pure analytics are conducted. I would also like to thank my parents, who taught my siblings and I two valuable lessons; my father instructed us to always do what’s right, no matter the cost, and our mother taught us the value of education, knowledge, and wisdom. This foundation secured my path, a path which sought knowledge through education in pursuit of the wisdom inherent in defining what right is. This led me to the University of Washington’s Department of History where I learned the value of primary sources in investigative processes, and later, to my doctoral studies at Bethel University where I learned the importance of delineating between scholarly and non-scholarly works. I would also like to thank Kevin whose input and consultation on this project was invaluable. Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife Mary without whom none of this would have been possible. Her faith, devotion, support, and guidance have both sustained and informed the long process of bringing this work to fruition, and there is simply no way to express how important her part in this work has been; thank you Sweetie. In closing, to all who read this, a very hardy and sincere thank you. Thank you for your time, and for your consideration of what follows.

Set Up

The drama unfolding

the story, the plot

The weaving of mystery

the cinch of the knot

So masterfully authored

directed with zeal

No wonder we’re spellbound

convinced that its real.

We who view without question

are carried along

Influenced by inflection

and moved by each song

Our will and emotions

completely enraptured

Succumbing as prey

that is baited and captured.

Yet all is not lost

if we take time to query

To look from all angles

commit not – but tarry

For all is not solid

as seeming to be

To gaze from the side,

or the back, one will see…

The walls are stretched linen

the corners just hinges

The seeming wood bannisters

styrofoam hinges

The halls lead to nowhere

the actors just mask it

The set - - a façade

and the fruit, purely plastic

With a strong wind of truth

it comes tumbling down

What seemed solid and sure

sends up dust from a mound

And it’s not hard to see

we’ve been hoodwinked, SET UP

Poured and ready, the poison

do I drink from this cup?

MT 1998

Introduction

Who among us wants to live a lie? How do you know that what you believe to be true is true? What have you based your understanding on? Where did that information come from? Truth is, was, and always will be the single most important concept in all existential thinking. America’s Founding Fathers understood this maxim, and that is why truth is the guiding principle through which, and upon which, America’s Constitution is predicated, understood, and secured. This is critical because the Constitution is the infrastructure within which America’s social systems disseminate the information requisite for answering the questions above. Absent an accurate understanding of truth, the US Constitution is rendered both meaningless and consequently useless. This is the source of America’s current dysfunction.

This book was written to provide analysis and evaluation of how changes in the definition of conceptual truth have impacted America’s social systems. It was written as a primer, and as such it covers a large volume of information in a limited amount of space. It makes the argument that people’s understanding of truth impacts how decisions are made. In support of this argument, a historiological survey is employed examining:

1) The impact of the great conversation on truth within the philosophic community.

2) The relationship between truth redefined and social institutions.

3) The impact of social institutions on society’s perception of self and others.

The cultural context within which this survey is conducted is through the lens of four of the core institutions that constitute American culture and society: government, education, science, and economics. What the literature shows is that each of these core institutions has been dramatically impacted by the changes in the academic understanding and definition of the word truth. The amalgamated implication of these findings is that predicating macrosocial decision making based on the mores and ethics inherent in the redefinition of truth is detrimental to America’s social systems and her cultural social consciousness. This is the underlying untenable condition which accounts for the systemic dysfunction within every measurable dynamic of American government, education, science, and economics. If America is to truly progress, truth must be restored as the central guiding principle in all of her social systems’ decision making processes.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

―US DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

CHAPTER 1

At the Crossroads

What Does It Mean To Be American

What does it mean We hold these truths to be self-evident…? Understanding this first, most critical statement is the key to understanding the entirety of the American Republic, and truth is the critical subject of the statement.

The Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States of America comprise more than just a system of government; they are America. Absent these two documents, there is no United States of America; there is only a collection of peoples living on the North American land mass. Together, however, these documents define in concrete terms those most basic universal laws of humanity which serve to create a set of principles and standards, a culture (Rosen 2006), not just for America’s government, but for every man, woman, child, business, corporation or association as well. In other words, if they, you, or it exists in the United States these are the principles and standards to be followed. These organizational principles and standards are not merely suggestions; they are the law of the land. However, an examination of the country today reveals that following these laws is no longer the norm, but rather the exception. Sadly, what this means is that the country that Alexis De Tocqueville exulted as exceptional in his work Democracy in America, is very quickly becoming unexceptional. That being said, America is by no means past the point of no return, its exceptionalism can be restored, but it will first require an understanding of how and why it has been lost. Accomplishing this will require identifying the underlying problem and then exploring how the problem came to be. Once the problem is clearly defined, taking an objective look at how the problem has affected various sectors of society will lead to a deeper understanding of the current condition of the country. This in turn, will allow for an informed assessment of these issues with an eye toward reversing America’s present slide into ignominy, thus restoring De Tocqueville’s exceptionalism, and ultimately redeeming the social fabric of the nation, and it all hinges upon how Americans understand that most important of words… Truth!

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.

Buhda

Identifying the Problem

In trying to define the problem, interviews revealed the same statement coming up over and over; It seems as if the world has gone crazy. This wasn’t the esoteric pontification of ethereal philosophers, but rather the sentiment of a carpenter in Ohio, a police officer in Indiana, a salesman in Washington. To a reasonable person, the things observed going on in America seem crazy, and they are. American Government seems completely and utterly dysfunctional, the financial system corrupt beyond repair, news agencies report opinion rather than fact, and the entertainment industry strives to present ever new levels of shocking material rather than operate under moral restraint. In addition, the country’s youth are increasingly narcissistic, apathetic, disenfranchised, and disengaged from reality (Psychology Today, 2017). Sadly, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Ironically, when people are queried about the people they know personally, those that they are in relationship with, for the most part, they deem them fairly reasonable. So, if people and their associates are what comprise greater society, how then can this be? How can institutions be so dysfunctional and yet people’s friends, family, and coworkers seem so rational? The answer isn’t that people are dishonest and secretly evil, some may be, but that is a different conversation. The answer is that there is an underlying misperception. There is a fiction, in that people are unwitting participants of a collective disconnect from reality. In other words, people have been deceived, and they have been deceived on a massive scale.

Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said;

…you may fool people for a time; you can fool a part of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

(Schwartz, 2003, pg.1)

If this is viewed as a challenge rather than an axiom, the question becomes; how does one fool all the people all the time? The only answer is to render people incapable of determining that they are being fooled (deceived). To accomplish this, the first order of business is to change the rules of the game; peoples’ understanding of what being fooled is must be redefined, and that is exactly what has happened.

What is Reality

Human thought processes constitute a matrix through which understanding and interaction with the world is both developed and employed. This matrix is made up of a number of concepts, principles, and understandings, and while some originate from environmental factors others are genetic in nature; self-preservation for instance. Each breath one takes is done at both a conscious and subconscious level. A person can consciously focus on and suspend his/her breathing, but when that focus is changed, he/she returns to breathing involuntarily. This is just one of many ways that humans consciously and subconsciously secure self-preservation (Thorndike, 1907). On a conscious level, people interact with the world around them (environmental) and then use that experience as a partial basis to make decisions within their self-preservation matrix. That environmental (conscious) experience in combination with the genetic (subconscious) is the basis for each individual’s rudimentary concept of reality (Gray, 2011). Truth is the word that humans have ascribed to the description of that reality. Ergo, when the definition of truth is changed, so is peoples’ understanding of reality; their individual matrix is altered. When this happens, it creates personal instability. People begin to question every aspect of their matrix, they look for the answers that will return equilibrium to their matrix, whether consciously or subconsciously, they seek a stable understanding of reality. When whole societies experience unstable matrices, then society as a whole becomes unstable and thus easily manipulated (Kegan, 1994).

The Cost of Fiction

Nobody likes to be deceived… not anybody. When it happens, when a person recognizes the deception, there is a dual sense of betrayal and naiveté. When people recognize they have been deceived, they feel duped; they feel foolish to have believed the person to begin with. They also feel insulted, because the person who deceived them didn’t respect them enough to let them make a merit-based decision, but instead manipulated the facts in order to manipulate their perception, decision, and/or response. This sounds pretty simple and straight forward, but rest assured it is anything but. For instance, the previous scenario assumes that the deception was deliberate, and that may or may not be the case. This creates quite a dilemma; should people give others the benefit of the doubt, or meet everything with a degree of skepticism? What is the right response? Whom and what is to be believed? Truth be told, most people give the benefit of the doubt except to those who have shown themselves to be less than truthful (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018). But what about deception that is unintentional; deception that gets propagated out of sheer ignorance, deception that gets passed along as truth, but is in reality purely fiction? If such cases are limited to the