What is truth outside of the facts? If someone writes a memoir describing his remarkable experiences, drawing from these profound truths about the world, do people not treat this differently than a novel? If it is learned that his experiences were completely fabricated, do we not see the book in a completely different light? And if an author writes fiction but claims it is fact, is he not appealing to the evidence of reality which he can’t do in a novel? He is, and yet some will still argue that his intentions outweigh his lies.
Mike Daisey has a one-man show called, The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Mike D’Virgilio writes, “Daisey conveys his experiences on a visit to China of seeing the allegedly deplorable working conditions in Apple’s production facilities. It turns out much of what he speaks about in his theatrical monologue and on the ‘This American Life’ episode about it, never happened.” That liberals will defend this non-factual account which purports to get at the truth is typical of them, D’Virgilio argues.
Kudos to Ira Glass for rejecting lies presented as truth.
Looking at D’Virgilio’s piece, he eventually accuses the Left as being immoral anti-religious zealots. I think this kind of hyperbole doesn’t do his argument any favors. I find it particularly interesting that he approves of the people on the right because they appeal to authority and natural law to justify social inequalities. Therefore the Left is immoral. :/
And as for the idea that it’s a special provenance of the left to believe mistruths or tell lies in service of the ideology one believes in, well, that’s intellectually dishonest. There are plenty examples of people from all stripes letting their passion for their beliefs get the better of their judgement.
Yes, intellectually dishonest people abound and sometimes are hard to spot. Are you saying though that D’Virgilio is justifying the work conditions in China by criticizing Daisey for using fiction to backup his argument?
I must say I don’t know about Apple’s China manufacturing responsibilities or the work conditions there. I was just watching a video on therealnews.com saying there were terrible working conditions there, but Forbes magazine says those conditions are typical of Chinese manufacturing and are worse in other companies. It also says some of the claims are nonsense. Where does the responsibility for this lie? It lies everywhere, primarily with China, but also with other companies, and it’s diminishing as it goes out, don’t you think? Is the only right response to this news for us to stop buying Apple products?
Far better would be to kick materialism in the teeth and stop spending so much on everything. None of that changes the worthlessness of Daisey’s presentation or justifies the work conditions. I’m getting agitated over this, because I tend to have a boycott mindset. If I believe Apple abuses its workers, then I won’t buy them. If I believe all computer manufacturing does it, then I start to question my entire lifestyle. I feel personally responsible.
But I’ll tell you, when I get agitated about a new story and then hear more details that change the story entirely, details I worry were withheld or ignored initially… That’s the way this story is looking. I’m starting to ramble. I’m sorry.
Similarly, my friends have learned not to ask my opinion on Dan Brown novels. They get a lesson in (actual) church history when they do. Some can even repeat my one-line summary of the historical problems–“316 to 2 is not a close vote.” If he can call a landslide like that “close” then what else is he lying about?
The big thing remember about The Da Vinci Code isn’t from that book at all, but the book that sourced it. The whole myth of Christ’s bloodline was created by the French man who planted documents he later claimed to have discovered, which made wild claims about historical figures and blamed the Jews for everything, I think. Even though that man admitted in court to creating the documents, that they were completely baseless, other idiots came along afterward to say that the document was still good. Just take out all of the racist stuff, and it’s still good history. Incredible!