Dante, Truth-telling, and the 8th Circle

I read Heather Cox Richardson's very interesting post about George Washington, and the underlying expectation that, for the most part, presidents have always been held to the standard that they will be honest-- or at least, as honest as possible. And when they have not, they have been held to account by a disapproving general public. Her main example, of course, was Nixon. 

I think the one thing that makes me expressly angry is when I've been lied to. Not only because it is a lie, but because the person telling the lie has assumed I'm too stupid to know the truth. I value my hard-earned intellect and education, coupled with my sense of fairness and integrity, too much to accept being made a fool of, and that's just what a liar does. 

Most people make excuses for the liar, and they consider extenuating circumstances. And, if the lie was not a hurtful one (a "little white lie"), I am inclined to only be disappointed. But when the lie is hurtful, intentional, and one that damages my sense of self, then I get very angry. 

I will come right out and say it: I am angry. 

I feel real annoyance at having to file my taxes this year. I feel like the ones ruining the government have soiled the Pledge of Allegiance to such an extent I want to choke on it, and the same goes for the National Anthem. These last two are symbols of fealty to a country, and I think that the people running the show have let us down, practically and tragically. And that is the real Big Lie. Oath-breakers are hard to accept.

Dante would consign these people to the eighth region of Hell:

The Eighth Circle of Hell is for the fraudulent. Dante and Virgil reach it on the back of Geryon, a flying monster with different natures, just like the fraudulent. This circle of Hell is divided into 10 Bolgias (stony ditches) with bridges between them. In Bolgia 1, Dante sees panderers and seducers. In Bolgia 2 he finds flatterers. After crossing the bridge to Bolgia 3, he and Virgil see those who are guilty of simony. After crossing another bridge between the ditches to Bolgia 4, they find sorcerers and false prophets. In Bolgia 5 are housed corrupt politicians, while in Bolgia 6 are hypocrites and in the remaining 4 ditches, Dante finds hypocrites (Bolgia 7), thieves (Bolgia 7), evil counselors and advisers (Bolgia 8), divisive individuals (Bolgia 9), and various falsifiers such as alchemists, perjurers, and counterfeits (Bolgia 10).

I hope we can find a way forward, as a country. But right now, when the "powerful" are aligning themselves internationally with extremists --Nazis-- I can't help but feel outraged.

Stay close, my friends.

C