Caught in a Lie

Lots of brainy people work on Wall Street, misdirected though their smarts may be. Highly credentialed, cloaked in sheepskin, yet still so easily duped. A key indicator of their activity, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, surged Monday on the word of a habitual liar.

The Dow jumped 631 points on the day, taken as a sign of rebounding investor confidence. Stock traders rallied when news reached them that the U.S. and Iran were in serious and “productive” talks that could soon bring an end to the war that’s tanked the market and much of the rest of the economy. Except the two countries involved in these supposed negotiations were not seriously and productively talking, not if you accept a dialogue takes at least two.

Whether on Wall Street or Main Street, we all had every reason to wait and see. After all, we’d been told the war would be over in a matter of days, then were told it could last months. Last June, we were told Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated.” A few weeks ago, we were told destroying those already obliterated nuclear capabilities was the whole reason for starting this war.

One day, it definitely wasn’t about regime change in Iran. Then it was. Another day, it was about protecting American companies’ assets in the Persian Gulf. Or preventing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Or…

We all were told that “nobody” believed Iran would respond to coming under attack by retaliating against neighboring Arab countries. Within days of hostilities starting, we all were told the U.S. had “destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability.” Then came one report after another of Iran bombing its neighbors.

A strike on an elementary school in the early hours of the war killed at least 175 innocent people, most of them children. We were told it was “done by Iran.” Evidence later showed that to be untrue.

We were told the U.S. military had a “virtually unlimited supply” of high-end weaponry allowing it to unleash epic fury for as long as it takes to vanquish the enemy. Then we hear help is sorely needed from allies around the world. Next, we hear we don’t need anyone’s help. Before we know it, the Pentagon asks Congress for an extra $200 billion to fight the war.

I have a question for the Wall Street traders, the feckless members of Congress down on bended knee, the millions of my fellow Americans who remain trusting of the habitual liar and loyal to his regime: Aren’t any of you parents?

Surely you must be familiar with the routine. Soon as most kids get caught messing up, they devise what they are sure is a leakproof alibi with lightning speed. When much to their surprise the story doesn’t hold up, they quickly cook up a new excuse. And another, and another. Gets downright laughable. No matter how amused I was as a dad myself, I did my best to stay in character, kept looking disappointed and angry.

Combat on the child-raising battlefield left me not with scars but a mantra that I repeated more times than I care to admit, to my own son as well as the little leaguers I coached: If you make a mistake, don’t make two. You boot a grounder, don’t turn it into a little league home run. The lesson applies to so many facets of adult life, where stakes are far higher than on a ball diamond. You know how it goes, it’s not the initial crime that does you in, it’s the cover-up.

Kids boot grounders, turn a one-base error into four bases and a run. Then they learn the game. Kids cheat or steal or hurt someone, lie about it, are found out, get in twice as much trouble. Then they grow up, know better. Most of the time.

America’s big failing right now is entrusting our country’s future to people who never were taught the folly of compounding errors, who’ve never had to grow the hell up. They screw up, lie about it, get called out for lying, then lie some more. Their behavior is reprehensible. It is also tolerated, and the more it is condoned, the more it’s normalized.

Even though it sure seems we’re doubling down on stupid these days, our big failing is not stupidity. Willful gullibility is more like it. Blind partisanship certainly plays its part. So do selfishness and greed. To Wall Street traders, to cowering members of Congress, to my country, I say this: If you make a mistake, don’t make twenty. Or, God forbid, two hundred billion.