Did George really say that ? That is what I was told as a lad. When his dad asked why the cherry tree was on the ground, the cherubic boy fessed up, "I cannot tell a lie; I did it with my little hatchet." At least that was the tale told by Mason Weems who wrote a biography after the death of the 'Truth-teller".
I wonder if George knew the word mendacity. It is the opposite of "I cannot tell a lie." Dictionary definitions include : "a habit of lying"; "deceit";"untruth"; "tendency to lie"; "feed someone a line"; "a willful perversion of truth in order to deceive, cheat, or defraud". You know, the opposite of veracity or truth or integrity.
I first heard the word from the mouth of Big Daddy played by Burl Ives in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. (there are clips on YouTube) "Ain't nothing more powerful than the odor of mendacity", he bellowed in one scene. The word undergirded most of the "point" of that 1958 movie and seems to be a constant in much of today's discourse ---public and private.
Mendacity abounds in the world of politics. Few politicians have been as bold as was Jimmy Carter in his campaign for the Presidency in 1976 when he vowed "I won't lie to you". I saw a couple of quotes whose sources I do not remember: "But if mendacity alone were grounds for resignation, the halls of Capitol Hill would be eerily, and permanently, quiet." and "You can always tell a con man by his mendacity and desire to trick you out of your money." Of course, politics does not have a monopoly on mendacity. I can recall several so-called preachers who fit that description.
Truth, Big Daddy said, "is pain and sweat". Certainly not always easy nor popular and can be costly, apparently to many political persons who dare to embrace it.
If Big Daddy spoke honestly when he said that mendacity has a STENCH, then during this time of "wild and wooly politics and electioneering" in the United States keep your nose clear to detect those for whom truth comes harder than a lie. There is lots of that stuff around. And that's the truth.
Satchel
