In the 2006 film V for Vendetta one of the characters says: 'Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the
truth up.' It was the artist Pablo Picasso who said in 1923 that 'We all know
that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth, at least the
truth that is given us to understand.
The artist must know how to convince others of the truthfulness of his
lies.'
Truth cannot be spoken of directly, because it is an ideal
beyond human comprehension. It is part of our human yearning. Those who say
they have found the truth and then try to make everything over into its image
are liars who become tyrants. An artist, on the other hand, creates an illusion
that hints at truth. An artist does not compel people to follow. An artist
awakens the yearning for truth in others.
Apparently the young Hitler aspired to be an artist. But he went
on to become one who struck out truth and installed in its place a
nationalistic fervour.
Former
politician, and above all, learned thinker, Barry Jones, in his memoir quotes
Primo Levi’s experience in Auschwitz. When he broke off an icicle to relieve
his thirst a guard knocked it out of his hand. 'Why?' asked Levi. 'Here is no why,' the guard replied.
The
title of Jones’ memoir , A Thinking Reed, is taken from Blaise Pascal’s Pensees: 'Man is but a reed, the feeblest in
nature, but he is a thinking reed. Let us strive then to think well; that is
the basic principle of morality.'
Jones wanted
to use Pascal in his maiden speech to the Victorian Parliament, but his friend
Phillip Adams advised him not to. He said, 'When you talk about Pascal, they
think you mean lollies.' (Pascall is a brand of confectionery.)
Sadly too many
of our politicians are not knowledgeable enough in the broad ways in which they
need to be if they are to truly serve people.
When Robert
Kennedy was on the presidential campaign trail in 1968 he arrived in
Indianapolis just as he received the news that Martin Luther King, Jr had been
shot dead. He was advised to cancel the campaign event. Instead he hurriedly
prepared a speech in which he quoted a Greek playwright, poet and soldier who
died in 456 BC. Fortunately no one was successful in advising him against this.
'My
favorite poem, my --- my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:
Even in our
sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.'
His delivery varied slightly from Edith Hamilton’s translation but he
had it there written in his heart to placate
a crowd in their time of anger and sorrow. It mattered not at all that probably no one in
the audience had ever heard of Aeschylus.
He ended his speech with the following:
'And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote
so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of
this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country
and for our people.'
