Plausible deniability?
America, sadly, has become a corporatized state. Look at the developing Enron scandal, which I will refer to as, "End Run."
An honest response from Dick Cheney would be, "here are the records. I've nothing to hide." Cheney knows if you have the facts, you'll be angry. He won't surrender those End Run records. After all, the guy avoided military service and amassed a fortune. I never said he was dumb.
Corporate behavior, and the unhealthy growth of lawyers (fact-twisters), have resulted in a new term, "plausible deniability." This takes the place of the politically incorrect old word----lie.
It means there are enough safeguards built into the lying so that it's hard to prove it's a lie. Or, as they used to say, "it's your word against mine."
Nowhere has this corporatizing cowardice, which has invaded business as well as government, more clearly been demonstrated than during a recent sales executive meeting related to me by a friend. This company put out an inferior product, compared to its former product. The current product was as clearly inferior as the prominent nose on my face.
The management told its salesmen (with smug smiles) the product wasn't inferior, even though the sales executives could see with their own eyes that it was. The management was motivated by:
A. The need to protect their cushy jobs and salaries.
B. The need to avoid responsibility for spilt milk.
Basically, the sales executives were told that up is down, black is white, the earth is flat. The executives sat and listened with stony faces, afraid to disagree for fear they would lose their own jobs (the manager lying probably has a big house payment to make and a wife with expensive tastes).
It takes courage to admit the truth.
Government is mostly run by middle-aged sharpies who've lost their youthful idealism, if ever they had any. This is the opposite of our Founding Fathers, who already had money and position, and risked it all in the Revolution (they would have been hanged if they'd lost).
Incredibly, this ends-justifies-the-means dishonesty even extends to fake crying by elected officials at funerals. I'm serious. Clinton, who knew the value of a photo op, and wanted to portray himself as a caring individual, shed tears at a funeral for an acquaintance, when none of the man's own family members could be seen crying.
The top salesmen of a well-known pyramid scheme selling soap products even go so far as to rehearse breaking down emotionally, a tactic to be used later in front of an audience, for dramatic impact, when relating their success stories. This I have seen with my own eyes.
Bush hasn't faked crying yet, but if his popularity slips because of the End Run scandal, he might.
