I’ve been wanting to post something about evil, and Tucker Carlson has given me just the opportunity. Tucker finds it terribly disturbing that millions of Americans believe our government was complicit in 9/11.

“If you’re willing to even entertain the notion,” said Carlson, “I mean think about what that means: You are willing to believe that the president or the Congress or somebody, them, the people in charge, would kill more than 3,000 people who didn’t do anything wrong because it helped them pass the Patriot Act or invade Iraq.”

“That’s so evil,” he continued, “how could you still live in this country if you believe that?”

Responding to a suggestion that cynical Americans were “ready to believe just about anything negative” about their government, Carlson proposed that those individuals might want to skip the country.

“If you have a population that stupid and reckless and they’re in charge of the government, maybe it is time to leave the country,” he said. “I don’t even want to think it through it any more. This is why we never do this topic on the show. It just upsets me too much. I don’t want to know these kind of facts about America.”

Let’s just take this one step at a time.

First of all, Tucker finds it “so evil” that people can even entertain the possibility of government complicity in 9/11. I wrote about the failure of imagination here and how it leads us into danger and complacency. But Tucker doesn’t want people doing too much thinking; he’d rather they accept the official version of events. Unfortunately, the official story does not add up. People who care about the truth will have looked into 9/11 by now. It’s been six years. And anyone who has looked into it will certainly understand the unsettling conclusions of government complicity. That is simply where the facts point. Has Tucker looked into these things? Who knows, but I would guess not. Tucker does not care about The Truth, he cares about protecting the power structure that has made him rich and famous. Plus, it would be too upsetting. And he is right about that.
M. Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled defined mental health as “an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs”. [Simon & Schuster, 1978, p.51] Sometimes facts (ie: reality) will take us in directions we don’t want to go. Does anyone WANT to believe that our leaders would be so corrupt, so venal, so greedy as to trigger a Pearl Harbor-like event to achieve their goals? Of course not. Accepting this means forever giving up the idea of American Exceptionalism, a treasured belief that we are a noble and good country, blessed by God with unique moral strength. And yet the facts simply do not support this belief. So people must choose, and many millions of us have chosen the facts and paid the dear price of giving up the treasured myth.

I grew up on The Myth. My childhood was filled with adults who believed that America was the Greatest Country in the World, and they all had their reasons for thinking so. It was true for them, and I loved and trusted them, and therefore it was true for me. Letting go of The Myth was extremely depressing, painful and time consuming, but it had to be done once I started looking for answers. Unfortunately, we can’t hold The Myth and The Truth at the same time. We must choose one, and I chose Truth, the way to mental health.

Some people mightily resist The Truth. It will crush them, and they know it, so they dedicate their lives to preserving The Myth.

In The People of the Lie, Peck goes on to explore evil. [Simon & Schuster, 1983] A psychiatrist, Peck had wondered at certain patients. While they seemed sane and normal, they caused tremendous confusion and pain to the people in their lives and even for Peck as their counselor. These are the people of the lie. First they lie to themselves, and then they lie to everyone else.

There is a tendency among lay persons to think that people who see a psychiatrist are abnormal, that there is something radically different about them in comparison to the ordinary population. This is not so. Like it or not, the psychiatrist sees as much psychopathology at cocktail parties, conferences, and corporations as in her or his own office. I am not saying there are absolutely no differences between those who visit a psychiatrist and those who do not, but the differences are subtle and, as often as not, reflect unfavorably upon the “normal” population. (p.85)

Evil, a dedication to the spirit of unreality, is common and pedestrian. When Tucker says, “I don’t want to know these kind of facts about America,” he is succumbing to evil impulses. He is dedicating himself to The Myth, not The Truth. He is clinging to unreality.

And what is Tucker’s solution? To make these people go away, of course. “How could you still live in this country if you believe that?” And then he starts to get more confused.

“If you have a population that stupid and reckless and they’re in charge of the government [We are? Cool.], maybe it is time to leave the country,” he said. [Wait...who's in charge and who is leaving? Is he saying he'll have to leave? Or is he admitting that stupid and reckless people are in charge? Does he even know what he's saying? I think he's freaking out.] “I don’t even want to think it through it any more. This is why we never do this topic on the show. It just upsets me too much. I don’t want to know these kind of facts about America.” [This has obviously taxed him emotionally. Run away, run away. Truth is so scary.]

I will post more about evil another day.