John Keane on the Current State of Things

John Keane is a fiction present in RIGHT HERE (2016) and in a current work-in- (very slow) progress. Here he explains the hesitancy local people have to trust anything authoritative.

I’m not a Cynic. I’m a Skeptic. You oughta take note that in a place like this skeptical is actually way over on the continuum towards the credulous, relative to the mean, or haven’t you noticed? There are people here who wouldn’t believe that it was sunny if the government told them so with the sun burning right into their eyes. Folks who never would have even dreamed of whipping up a Clorox Colada suddenly developed a taste for them during the pandemic because the government told them not to drink it.

Why are they so suspicious?

Because they’re smart. Maybe not smart enough, but smart. Look, if you know somebody has lied to you, not once but several times, wouldn’t you stop believing him? Well, that’s how a lot of people feel about the government. Heard of The Pentagon Papers? The good old Domino effect? Weapons of Mass destruction? Trickle-Down? Love Canal? You know, “fooled me once . . .” That’s how people here feel, and they feel that way about government in general, and that includes the relatively benign government of the State of Vermont, which keeps saying that there are no cougars in Vermont when everyone here knows perfectly well that there are and with folks seeing them all the time.

The reason you should never lie is less moral than it is practical. If you want to believed at all afterwards, you won’t be. But on the other hand a really artful liar can get away with it. All you need to do is to come up with the lie, almost anything, that people want to hear. Figuring out what they want to hear is the hard part. After that it’s easy. At the moment, and here, anyway, if that lie has one particular ingredient these folks will swallow it.

What’s the ingredient?

Come on. Aren't you following me? That it contradicts whatever the government is saying. You know, the Clorox Colada. The anti-vax. Sure, the flat-earth Denisovans.

So they feel that if someone has lied, he will always lie?

Yep. That’s what I mean when I said, “Not quite smart enough.” But don’t you take them for fools. You can’t put much over on folks who expect you to try. Even if it's the truth, but one they don't find fetching.