This essay is an abridged version (introduction and ending) of the 7800 word full version with the same name published at King's Calendar.Com.

There was once a good Jewish boy from Tarsus by the name of Saul, who got caught up in a Religion that turned a man from Nazareth into the Jewish Messiah.

One day this Jewish boy who later became known as Saint Paul, appeared before the ruler of the Land, who asked him, 'What is truth?' Being now a good Christian boy, Paul told him that Jesus of Nazareth was the 'The Way, the Truth and the Life.'

Now we all know that this is not true, for several good reasons. For Example:

• Jesus was a Man, and as we all know, men are liars. You simply shouldn't put your trust in Jesus.
• Moreover, Jesus was a Jew! - We all know that Jews are thieves and manipulators of society. They have been responsible for all the troubles in history.
• Similarly, Jesus was an Israeli. What more could be said.  Invaders and terrorists who stole from the Egyptians, then the Canaanites, the Philistines and now the Palestinians.
• Jesus was also a single man. While he was probably gay, (and what gay man can claim to be qualified to tell straight people how to live), the fact is, even as a straight single man, who is he to to be seen as the answer to life's problems. If God was going to send a Saviour, she definitely would have been a woman.
• Even if we ignore all the above points, we know that Jesus could not be the answer to the world's problems, because in fact he was the founder of a religion which apart from all the destruction and havoc it has created throughout history, is responsible for us having to endure those moralising self righteous conservatives who have done everything to stop us from exercising our rights to abortions, watch pornography, and being sexually liberated.
• But above all else, Jesus does not qualify to be anyone important, because he really was not someone important. He was not wealthy; He was uneducated; He was a religious fundamentalist; and He belonged to no political party.
• There can be no question about it - Jesus is hardly qualified to lead us to the truth.

Let me state it a little more succinctly:

• We don't like him
• We will do anything and everything to ruin his image.
• He had an agenda completely different to ours.
• He does not represent our truth.
• And ain't that the truth!

All of this is an example of what I would call, a political camera angle. Truth rests not in reality, history or experience, but in the loudest voice and most regularly broadcast political camera angle.

Today, truth is only that which is presented through the lens of a Political Camera Angle, and the two political camera angles that I hate the most, are those symbiotic twin political entities called 'Political Correctness and Multiculturalism'.

Why Do I hate these Political Platforms? Because I was raised to believe in Freedom!

Spinoza said: 'Every man is by indefeasible natural right the master of his own thoughts.' The great fallacy of totalitarian movements like political correctness is that they seek to eliminate an important step in human cognition: the dialogue with the self, the act of dialectical mastication that allows us to absorb and process experience, and to direct and enable our own moral lives. Only in the inviolable sanctuary of the soul, in the sacred act of self-communion, can man realize his own transcendence and salvation. Political correctness provides us with the predigested morality of self-appointed ideologues, the profane consensus of mediocre minds, in lieu of our own common sense and the collective wisdom of the ages. (Wm. B. Fankboner  : America in Crisis: The Triumph of Political Correctness)

If you have ever looked through the titles of the Editorial and Social Commentary articles that I have published at King's Calendar or Magic City News, you can't fail to notice how many relate to Political Correctness.

If you have ever actually read any, you would know that I stand in complete opposition to the academics, the activist groups, the politicians, and the media who constantly feed us BS and guilt trips in their efforts to socially engineer their preferred secular societies, for what ultimately seems to be for no other reason than to attain to some measure of personal power, (although some psychologists suggest that it more probably derives from their 'inner guilt' at having led such privileged lives).

Understand me clearly when I say that, Political Correctness enshrines a wonderful philosophy that is worthy of our attention, just like Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Communism. Unfortunately, what it has degenerated into, is nothing more than a lying, self-centered power play, that cares nothing for the human condition, and certainly not for its' self proclaimed agendas of 'brotherhood and non discrimination'. PC activism, (a core value of feminism and gay rights in particular), is discriminatory and abusive in the extreme, which is why secular libertarians are never content to let people of the Christian or Jewish persuasion keep their faith. They are also too stupid to realise that in Islamic States, their ideals are in the forefront of those being routinely eliminated.

The problem is that while the ideals of political correctness are worthy, those who proclaim them the loudest are not.  They are liars. 'Like the old-style Soviet propaganda with which it has much in common, coercive censorship has no relation to truth; it is an attempt to manipulate, condition and control.' (Wm. B. Fankboner)

So what is the truth?

In this article, I maintain that nobody cares what the truth is. They care for nothing more than the camera angle that spotlights their particular issue, guilt, power lust or self righteousness.

Now let me give you an hilarious example of exactly what I mean.

In an article entitled: Tongue-lash over 'gay kiss By entertainment writer Alex Murdoch (May 31, 2006 - Courier Mail Queensland), it was reported that:

• "REALITY television show Big Brother has been caught creatively editing footage to make it seem as though two male house mates had kissed."

In fact, as the story unfolds, footage shown of a self-professed Queensland gay farmer, kissing a straight male house mate, turned out to be an illusion created by the camera angle.

Footage from a different camera in a different position, supported the aggrieved straight man's denial that any kiss took place. When the second footage was shown, it depicted something that "was obviously not what was originally shown to the public". Oh but what they did show was actually and literally the truth, but shown to create a lie.

Obviously, the shows producers preferred the misleading footage, because of the controversy it would cause. It was a far more profitable representation of the truth.

In another story from Australia around the same time, a misleading scene was created by a TV crew, specifically to support allegations that were to be made by the interviewer.

In the article entitled: Truth a casualty (May 30, 2006 from : AAP), the headline read:

• An Australian military commander has tried to ensure truth does not become a casualty of conflict in East Timor, but embarrassed a TV network in the process. The story related how Brigadier Michael Slater appeared on TV in a live cross from Dili (Timor) for an interview. He was surrounded by helmeted and heavily armed Australian soldiers standing behind him.

The TV Host wanted to know whether Dili was as safe as the Australian military claimed, given the presence of armed soldiers at the General's shoulder. Brigadier Slater replied: "....safe, yes, but not because I've got these armed soldiers behind me that were put there by your stage manager here to make it look good".

In both of these examples, we can see creative manipulation of the truth, in order to feed the self interest of Media groups. Such incidents are commonplace in our world, but all too often we allow ourselves to be deceived by them, because it suits our personal worldview. (For Instance the furore over The DaVinci Code.)

If there is one thing my father told me that I know to be absolutely true, it is this: People always believe what they prefer to believe, irrespective of the truth.

In a war of propaganda, truth is the first thing to suffer, and the mere fact that we know we are being fed propaganda, ought to make us careful not to automatically believe what suits our personal philosophies. For Example: In World War II, my father was an infantryman in the Australian Army (but sent off with the Brits because of his parentage). But you could have been excused for believing that he served in the German infantry, when one day, while watching a war movie in which Rommel's staff sergeant struck a prisoner that Rommel was interviewing, my father jumped out of his seat protesting: 'Rommel never permitted that sort of thing!' (Dad was in a position to know!)

My point is that we are fools to deliberately deceive ourselves because the deception fits 'hand in glove' with our political or other agenda. Truth should be acknowledged, even if it does not suit our agenda.  No where is this lack of honesty in supporting political agendas more obvious, than in the Middle East, in relation to Israel, Iraq and terrorism.

Today we swim in a sea of 'information overload', in which the sheer volume of information is like a millstone around our necks. Drowning in information, We have neither the time nor inclination to search further than the headlines and propaganda.

We live in a world with competing ideologies that routinely seek to win us over, and which never let the truth stand in the way of a good philosophy.  Appealing to our emotions rather than our intellects; deceiving us with images that are sometimes engineered for that purpose; and always hiding behind some great humanitarian facade promising the exact opposite, we are led down a spiralling path toward social fragmentation.

Dispensing with religious injunctions requiring brotherly love as a matter of conscience, we are forced to adopt a counterfeit facade which requires adherence to political philosophy devoid of commonsense, and which insists on the rejection of social and cultural norms.

And should we not obey, we are not left to be judged in the hereafter by the great "I am", but are swiftly punished in the here-and-now by the great "I wanna be's", not just by societal rejection, but by the full force of laws specifically introduced to cower us into submission.

Whilst truth, decency and honesty are touted to be the core values of this new philosophy, the reality is quite different.

Whether Muslim, Jew, Christian or Secular, we all have a right to be told the truth, and we in the West have been raised to believe that it is our right to dissent and disagree, not only with each other, but with our leaders. Unfortunately, in this Black and White world, we are losing our right to conscience in the face of demands to choose sides.

At this point in history, we stand at a crossroad, and we have to make a personal and national decision about which path to follow.

• Do we want to be told what to think and believe? - or - Do we choose to live in truth and light?
• Do we want to have our free thinking and expressions of same muted by would-be-gods? - or - Are we prepared to think, speak and believe openly and honestly
• Do we through fear remain silent in the face of politically motivated activists? - or - Do we choose to stand up for ourselves and our democratic rights?
• Do we accept people on the basis of their good character? - or - Do we play it safe, choose sides and abide by party rules?
• Do we want our country to continue in its' traditional cultural heritage? - or - Are we happy to see what happens when power mongers socially re-engineer our world?
• Do we believe in Peace? - or - Do we justify bloodshed?
• Do we believe in Justice? - or - Do we justify injustice?
• Do we want to live in a Democracy? - or - Are we happy to live in a Totalitarian society?

These are the questions that we should be asking ourselves. When we know the answers, then we should stop looking at the world through Political Camera Lenses.

There was once a good Jewish boy from Tarsus by the name of Saul, who got caught up in a Religion that turned a man from Nazareth into the Jewish Messiah. One day this Jewish boy who later became known as Saint Paul, appeared before the ruler of the Land, who asked him, 'What is truth?'

We may not always be able to get to the heart of the truth, but that is no excuse for not trying.

R.P.BenDedek

Now this is Faith in the Almighty

Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

The Truth shall set you FREE

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China.

King's Calendar Social Commentaries may be found at: http://www.kingscalendar.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=331

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.