Warp Speed: How Long Can the Big Lie Be Maintained?

House Oversight Subcommittee acknowledges the true origin of SARS-CoV-2 while maintaining the Big Lie of Operation Warp Speed.

I spent the morning reviewing the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic 520-page report, released on Dec. 2.

The exercise reminded me of the old Latin adage "Mundus vult decipi, decipiatur ergo,” — that is, “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.”

In his book, The City of God, St. Augustine wrote:

The pontifex maximus Scævola thought it expedient that the people should be deceived in religion; and the learned Varro said plainly, that there are many truths which it is useless for the vulgar to know; and many falsities which it is fit the people should not suppose are falsities.

Scaevola’s sentiment is part of a long tradition of political thought that goes back at least as far as Plato’s concept of “the noble lie”— that is, a myth propagated by the ruling class to maintain social harmony—which he presented in The Republic.

In his 1532 treatise, The Prince, Machiavelli stated that the ruler must be willing to commit acts of duplicity in order to maintain social harmony, because common people lack sufficient understanding and discernment to live in accordance with complex reality. In short, most people can’t handle the truth. Social cohesion is therefore maintained by the collective belief in certain myths.

I suppose it may well be the case that Plato, Scaevola, and Machiavelli were right—that is, that most people can’t handle the truth. Be that as it may, the U.S. Constitutional Republic was NOT founded on this proposition. Indeed, Madison explicitly rejected it when he wrote:

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Back to the House Oversight Subcommittee’s new report: Subcommittee Chairman Brett Wenstrup et al. drew the following conclusions.

1) The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

2) The Chinese government, agencies within the U.S. Government, and some members of the international scientific community sought to cover-up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic.

3) Operation Warp Speed was a tremendous success and a model to build upon in the future. The vaccines, which are now probably better characterized as therapeutics, undoubtedly saved millions of lives by diminishing likelihood of severe disease and death.

4) Rampant fraud, waste, and abuse plagued the COVID-19 pandemic response.

5) Pandemic-era school closures will have enduring impact on generations of America’s children and these closures were enabled by groups meant to serve those children.

6) The Constitution cannot be suspended in times of crisis and restrictions on freedoms sow distrust in public health.

7) The prescription cannot be worse than the disease, such as strict and overly broad lockdowns that led to predictable anguish and avoidable consequences.

In other words, the Subcommittee acknowledged the Big Lie that Fauci and his virology buddies propagated in the spring of 2020, while at the same time maintaining the Big Lie that Warp Speed “saved millions of lives.”

How long can this Big Lie be maintained? I implore Rep. Wenstrup and President-elect Trump to discard this Big Lie as soon as possible.

I understand that politics is a tricky business that requires contending with huge, powerful, and ruthless interest groups that fight tooth and nail to maintain their interests. As the Roman lawyer and statesman, Cicero, is reputed to have said, “Rome is made of marble but it’s built on a sewer.” As the 19th century Austrian Minister President Eduard Taaffe is reputed to have said, “Politics is the art of keeping every interest group in an equal state of dissatisfaction.”

However, the Big Lie that Operation Warp Speed “saved millions of lives” is simply no longer tenable and should be dropped. As with all things in life, timing is a major consideration. Major decisions that will rock huge boats must be done when the time is ripe. I hope the time to ditch the Warp Speed Lie will ripen after Trump and Kennedy are sworn in.

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