The Truth. Hard to Handle, Even Harder to Swallow.
Gregg Zegarelli Esq.
Managing Shareholder at Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC
Masters of Cinema, Rob Reiner, Tom Cruise, and Jack Nicholson frameworked one of the most indelible scenes in cinematic history in A Few Good Men, with Nicholson's iconic Col. Jessup spitting out the expositional phrase in frustration:
You can't handle the truth!
There may be some readers who never saw this 30 year old cinematic gem, so I won't spoil it, but the plot revolves around whether a "Code Red" was issued to "incentivize" (or to "punish," depending upon your view of it) a "sub-standard" United States Marine. Superbly directed, superbly cast, and superbly acted.
Now, some people will watch and say something like, "Wow, that Rob Reiner does not get enough credit for his other indelible genius scenes, like 'These go to 11' from This is Spinal Tap or the 'Battle of Wits' scene from The Princess Bride or the 'Restaurant Scene' from When Harry Met Sally," among others.
But, a few people, such as political scientists, historians, philosophers, sociologists, critical thinkers, and lawyers (not that those are mutually exclusive) will also say something like, "Hmmm, this movie, A Few Good Men, raises a very important question regarding the existential sustainability of political systems and what is systemically necessary to create and to sustain them; that is, what makes certain societies evolve to rise, stay up, and then to fall." [1, 2]
As a matter of general tendencies, we pretty much know from experience that Col. Jessup was correct. That is, indeed, some people can't handle the truth. The truth is just too brutal, and not everyone can take the hit. [3, 4] Therefore, it is a natural tendency for people to hope rather than to do or to perceive. [5, 6, 7] So said Patrick Henry, referencing the phantom of hope six times. [8]
Hope beguiles us.
But the truth and the pain come, sooner or later, either way, one way or the other. [9] It has been said, "The truth is a dish best served cold," drawing upon our Klingon, because the truth should come at us unadorned, fast, harsh, and dead cold. [*1] A clean cut, unflattering, and without delay. [10]
Now, we know that eating a steak and killing the cow are not the same thing. There is a lost experiential wisdom in not killing for ourselves the cow that sustains so many of us. Thus, behold, there is more to an American rancher's wisdom and character than just hard work. Raising a cow, and then killing the cow we just raised, and then eating it, requires a certain hard thoughtful existential life-reconciliation. A type of native power, appreciation, or truth.
Think about it for a moment: watching a living being be born, looking into its eyes every day, and then killing it, and then eating it. And I say that as a happy carnivore of sorts, understanding that everyone is not a meat-eater for different reasons. 'Tis good to know it, 'tis better to do it. 'Tis best to reconcile it.
We might even learn from Game of Thrones, Ned Stark, that the one who eats it should swing the sword. The wages of life, are, well, life. [11] The traditional children's book, not yet banned or burned [12], Charlotte's Web, exposes the point well enough. Such as it is, civility evolved or devolved from killing a chicken ourselves, to having it done for us at remote chicken slaughterhouse factories.
Civil evolution or devolution, as the case may be, tends to detach us, making us only hopeful philosophers. As Master Shakespeare said in Much Ado About Nothing,"[G]ive me no counsel. My griefs cry louder than advertisement....I will be flesh and blood; For there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently." That is, it is easy to talk principles until we experience the burden ourselves. [13, 14] Yes, philosophy aside, we are sentient flesh and blood.
But back to Col. Jessup. There's a spoiler here, but, if you want to view the sublime socio-philosophical Reiner/Cruise/Nicholson clip, click here now.
I will suggest that this scene is required viewing for every critical thinker, political philosopher and political scientist, because it exposes exactly the contention—if not a hypocrisy—between descendant base animalistic life necessity and ascendant systemically evolved political justice systems. The movie implicates how "evolved" systemic civility can destroy itself, by trying to escape immutable constraints of nature, and her cause and effect. [15, 16, 17]
Truth be told, and cold as it is, not everyone will agree with the result of the movie, by philosophical difference. But what remain are these perennial questions of cause and effect, with what is, what should be, and what must be. [18] Free-thinkers may disagree, but the cinematic presentation and artistic expression are sublime and provide food for thoughtful contemplation.
Moreover, such as Saving Private Ryan, the movie also exposes a contention between two basic life principles of justice; to wit:
It is a general principle for the one to be sacrificed to save the many, but under what principle should the many be sacrificed to save the one?
That is, what will live and what will die? What benefit is reconciled to what wage? What thing is the basis to sustain what thing?
Such as it is, and all phantoms of hope put aside, sentient life ain't easy, and sometimes what some people perceive as morally bad actions are necessary to achieve what some people perceive as morally good results. [*9] Justice depends upon where the view is directed, and without staying tethered to immutable natural constructs and tendencies, sooner or later the narrative caves in upon itself. There are a lot of neat devices invented over the last 2,000 years, yet humanity has "not advanced one inch." [19] It simply goes in circles. [20]
The question of bad things as necessary for good results is often the stuff of war, such as the American Revolution and the Civil War. The question has been around a long time. In The Prince, Machiavelli is often quoted in a pejorative manner, "The end justifies the means," meaning that good ends justify doing any bad things to get there. But he did not quite say that. Here is what Machiavelli actually said:
Men in general judge rather by the eye than by the hand, for every one can see but few can touch. Every one sees what you seem, but few know what you are, and these few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many who have the majesty of the State to back them up. Moreover, in the actions of all men, and most of all of Princes, where there is no tribunal to which we can appeal, we look to results [the end]. Wherefore if a Prince succeeds in establishing and maintaining his authority, the means will always be judged honourable and be approved by every one [as the means].
For the vulgar are always taken by appearances and by results, and the world is made up of the vulgar, the few only finding room when the many have no longer ground to stand on.
It seems not often thought about, but the truth of the matter is that proverbial "love of god and country" is the basis for mainstream American patriotism, as it also is for the Klu Klux Klan, as it also is for Nazism, as it also is for Israel and Palestine, and as is also is for pretty much all of political scientific causation of death and destruction of humanity throughout time. Everyone's fighting about their own presumptuous self-righteous "love of god and country" versus the other guy's presumptuous self-righteous "love of god and country," by self-interest. As Abraham Lincoln said it, it is so naturally elemental that it is the "strange" case even when both sides read from the same bible, and yet are still fighting over presumptuous self-righteous "love of god and country." [21, 22]
Many of us do not subscribe to Klu Klux Klan or Nazi belief systems, as we were not indoctrinated in that manner. [23] But that's a different issue. The truth is, however, that the formulaic proverbial self-righteous "love of god and country" is the basis of their actions. The narrative is usually framed only as hate, but it's not quite that simple for political scientists, historians, philosophers, sociologists, critical thinkers, and lawyers (not that those are mutually exclusive). As Jesus said, to love one is to adduce hate for the other, or perhaps that is the tendency. [24] But it's not an utter failure to love so much as it is a failure to love the right thing or the right way, judged by another, an external standard. [25]
There are countless television programs that narrate the Nazi atrocities regarding the mentally ill, but I've never seen one about Buck v. Bell, where the United States Supreme Court ruled to permit compulsory sterilization of the mentally ill, no less than with United States Postage Stamp Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr., writing the Opinion of the Court, saying:
It would be strange if [the government] could not call upon those [mentally ill] who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence.
It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.
The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.
Three generations of imbeciles are enough.
[26] This was the verbatim statement of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, addressed in Oliver Wendell Holmes and His Imbeciles. [27, 28]
Sure, Holmes is not yelling, "You can't handle the truth," such as Col. Jessup, but the Code Red is right there, notwithstanding. We just have to look for it.
In 1927, around the same time as the Nazis, Americans were cutting fallopian tubes of the mentally ill, for the good of the country, with Grand Master Holmes, leader, legal philosopher hero, author of The Common Law, soldier, effectively saying, "Soldiers die for the survival and prosperity of the common weal, so it would be 'strange' if you did not sacrifice like a patriot soldier, and it's 'better for all the world' if you don't procreate. And, even so, the cuttings won't hurt a bit, like brutal injuries endured by soldiers in war." The perception of civil duty manifests in a lot of different ways, some ways are just more subtle than others.
The truth hurts, but the truth does not care, nor does the political science.
Certain leaders will pander and certain leaders will not pander, and some leaders will pander more or less than other leaders. [29, 30] Some leaders are more abrasive than other leaders. Some leaders will dish out the truth coddlingly warm and some leaders will dish it out nasty and cold. President "Give 'Em Hell" Harry Truman dished it out nasty and cold, saying, “I don’t give them hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it’s hell.”
But, alas, the truth is that nothing is free, most of all freedom. Something takes and something gives. Something pays the cost and something receives the benefit. Something will live and something will die. [*15] Utopia is delusion.
Putting aside the phantom of hope, the pain of truth and the wages of life come again, sooner or later, either way, one way or the other. [*9, *15] The pain of truth, or, as Rob Reiner might say, the "misery."
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[24] ONE®: The Unified Gospel of Jesus, Divine Version [Second Edition] Published [#GRZ_59] 24.1 ONE: 586 [T6:24] ("love one and hate the other")
She asked me not to eat the lovely meat. The compassion of it, I can't say why. For, if I don't get that lovely meat, god's animals will pass me by. But, either way, the meat is eaten. It's only that I would be beaten! So, now I shall go catch that lovely meat! Always looking back with one eye. ~ grz
[Written in response to my sister, a vegetarian, who suggested that I might not eat meat at least in part for reasons of compassion, to which I quipped that I would stop eating living beings whenever they agree not to eat each other, or me. {31}]
"Verum catino optime servivit frigus." ("Truth is dish best served cold.") ~ grz
* Gregg Zegarelli, Esq., earned both his Bachelor of Arts Degree and his Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His dual major areas of study were History from the College of Liberal Arts and Accounting from the Business School (qualified to sit for the CPA examination), with dual minors in Philosophy and Political Science. He has enjoyed Adjunct Professorships in the Duquesne University Graduate Leadership Master Degree Program (The Leader as Entrepreneur; Developing Leadership Character Through Adversity) and the University of Pittsburgh Law School (The Anatomy of a Deal). He is admitted to various courts throughout the United States of America.
Gregg Zegarelli, Esq., is Managing Shareholder of Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC. Gregg is nationally rated as "superb" and has more than 35 years of experience working with entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes, including startups, INC. 500, and publicly traded companies. He is author of One: The Unified Gospel of Jesus, and The Business of Aesop™ article series, and co-author with his father, Arnold Zegarelli, of The Essential Aesop: For Business, Managers, Writers and Professional Speakers. Gregg is a frequent lecturer, speaker and faculty for a variety of educational and other institutions.
© 2024 Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn.
The statements or opinions made in this article are solely the author's own and not representative of any institution regarding which the author is affiliated.
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9moLove a deep dive! Really underscores the power of cinema to reflect and challenge societal norms. 🎬
Truth, in all its forms, demands courage. As Aristotle said - Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. 🌟 #truth #wisdom #cinema
Powerful insights! 💡 Your critical analysis delves deep into the complexities of truth and justice. Gregg Zegarelli Esq.