The awarding of “winner” or “loser” status
in the social, legal and political “game” is not outside it. There is no
impartial judge nor invisible hand producing and delivering the result. It is a
social compact.
The true fight of the game was not usually in the forefront but behind the
scenes and winner’s power. This was ever a common place in literature-the
commonest one I feel-. Literature was the truth of power elucidated by some
individuals not playing power’s game. Being able to refrain from power was a
prerequisite of truth.
That was also the reason why any loser could defend truth’s
independence and in so doing win –at least- the real truth of any fight.
Today literature and “losers” are being denied their previous status
and confined to nowhere in the social realm. Preserving power requires today not only to
produce “losers” but to destroy any narrative from them and sell something
different instead. Truth’s dead is the real victory of “winners” in our days.
It is no mere coincidence that Thoreau points to truth in Walden
conclusion in this way:
“Rather
than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were
rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and
truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The
hospitality was as cold as the ices. I thought that there was no need of ice to
freeze them. They talked to me of the age of the wine and the fame of the
vintage; but I thought of an older, a newer, and purer wine, of a more glorious
vintage, which they had not got, and could not buy. The style, the house and
grounds and "entertainment" pass for nothing with me. I called on the
king, but he made me wait in his hall, and conducted like a man incapacitated
for hospitality. There was a man in my neighborhood who lived in a hollow tree.
His manners were truly regal. I should have done better had I called on him.”
Chief Joseph Hinmton Yalektit (Native
American Leader: c. 1840—1904) fought and sought also independence’s truth:
“I have asked some of
the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that
he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please.
They cannot tell me.”
Moving north through the mountains of Idaho, Wyoming,
and Montana, the Nez Percé under his leadership conducted one of the most
brilliant retreats in American history. In three months this band of 700, with
fewer than 200 warriors, traveled almost 1,500 miles while fighting off a
pursuing army of 2,000.
Chief Joseph had been told that his people would be
returned to their lands in Oregon, but instead they were transported to eastern
Kansas, and then Oklahoma, where many died from epidemic diseases. He continued
to protest their treatment, even traveling to Washington DCin 1879 to meet with
President Hayes, but he and the Nez Percé were never permitted to return to
their homeland. He died in northeastern Washington State in 1904, and was buried
there in exile. https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/chief-joseph-hinmton-yalektit
Today’s
truth is not and should not be different for people losing everything but
truth to power.
“We the
people” ("hold these truths to be"): losing power and independence but-not yet- truth.
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