{"id":3565,"date":"2011-06-26T08:18:05","date_gmt":"2011-06-26T12:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=3565"},"modified":"2011-06-26T08:18:05","modified_gmt":"2011-06-26T12:18:05","slug":"politics-and-the-land-of-make-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/06\/politics-and-the-land-of-make-believe","title":{"rendered":"Politics and the Land of Make Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Dr. Jack Kerwick<\/em><\/div>\n
\n

Among the shows I used to watch as a child was Mr. Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood.\u00a0 <\/em>In every episode, Fred Rogers would whisk his viewers away to \u201cthe land of make believe.\u201d\u00a0 It has been quite some time since any reader of this column has been a child.\u00a0 However, insofar as we involve ourselves in any capacity in politics, we continue to visit a land of make believe.<\/p>\n

Given that it consists largely of myths, it should come as no surprise to hear that the world of politics is as close to a land of make believe as any adult is going to visit.\u00a0 In the popular imagination, it is a truism that politicians are liars.\u00a0 <\/em>Certainly there are politicians who fit this description; but I don\u2019t think politicians are more prone than anyone else to lie.\u00a0 Politics is for the most part like play, <\/em>an activity during which truth is suspended.\u00a0 Perhaps many Americans are aware of this, and it is this insight, infrequently unconscious though it is, that accounts for why politics has acquired the less than flattering reputation that it has.\u00a0 But if play precludes the category of truth, it precludes as well that of falsity.\u00a0 That is to say, although politicians may not speak the literal truth, this doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that they are lying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

CLICK HERE to read more <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dr. Jack Kerwick Among the shows I used to watch as a child was Mr. Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood.\u00a0 In every episode, Fred Rogers would whisk his viewers away to \u201cthe land of make believe.\u201d\u00a0 It has been quite some time since any reader of this column has been a child.\u00a0 However, insofar as we involve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[2201,828],"class_list":["post-3565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-news","tag-politics-2"],"yoast_head":"\nPolitics and the Land of Make Believe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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