Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was a very famous American writer of essays, novels, screenplays and Broadway plays. His numerous books included Myra Breckinridge, the historical novels Julian, Burr and Lincoln and The City and the Pillar that was notable for featuring explicit homosexuality. He was anti-war and demolished his barbarous critics with scathing wit (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal ).
Gore Vidal on lying in a UK interview with Melvyn Bragg (2008):
Gore Vidal: Unlike most Americans who lie all the time, I hate lying. And here I am surrounded with these hills [in Hollywood] full of liars — some very talented.
Melvyn Bragg: What do you mean by lying in that sense? Do you mean telling fictions?
Vidal: Yeah, about themselves, about their beliefs, about their histories. Degrees, from universities — this is piled up lies.
Americans are not interested in the truth about anything. They assume everybody is lying because they go out and lie everyday about the automobile they are trying to sell you…
This is a country of hoax. P.T. Barnum is the god of this republic, which is no longer a republic alas. It is an oligarchy and a rather vicious one.
Bragg: Can I quote a bit from Montaigne — something from Montaigne that you quote and refer to several times in these memoirs [of yours], from his essay on lying –
Vidal: yes, wonderful…
Bragg: “Lying is an accursed vice. It is only our words which bind us together and make us human. If we realized the horror and weight of lying, we would see that it is more worthy of the stake than other crimes.”
Vidal: … and I’ll drop the match [to set aflame the convict].
Yes, it is … — you see this whole American society is based on advertising, which in turn grabbed on to something called television which could just perpetrate lies everywhere into this society and does and did.
So I have lived in a rather troubling time.” [1].
Pertinent quotations from Gore Vidal in the movie "Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia" [2]:
"A writer must always tell the truth, unless he is a journalist".
"Words are used to disguise, not illuminate".
Half the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for president. One hopes it is the same half."
"We learn nothing because we remember nothing." [2].
:
[1]. Gore Vidal interviewed by Melvyn Bragg on the South Bank Show”, 2008: http://warincontext.org/2012/08/01/remembering-gore-vidal-change-is-the-nature-of-life-and-its-hope/ .
{2]. “Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia", movie:, directed by Nicholas Wrathall (2013): http://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/513a8382c07f5d4713000294-gore-vidal-the-united-sta and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745710/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl .
Gore Vidal (US writer): “The corporate grip on opinion in the US is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent” (quoted in Harry Kawilarang, “Quotations on Terrorism”, Trafford Publishing, UK, 2006).
Gore Vidal (US writer): “The media, never much good at analysis, are more and more breathless and incoherent. On CNN, even the stolid John Clancy started to hyperventilate when an Indian academic tried to explain how Iraq was once our ally and “friend” in its war against our Satanic enemy Iran. “None of that conspiracy stuff,” snuffed Clancy. Apparently, “conspiracy stuff” is now shorthand for unspeakable truth” (quoted in Harry Kawilarang, “Quotations on Terrorism”, Trafford Publishing, UK, 2006).
Gore Vidal: “The people have no voice since they have no information …No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent” (Gore Vidal quoted in Andrew Glikson, “The gathering climate storm and the media cover-up”, Countercurrents, 2 January 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/01/02/the-gathering-climate-storm-and-the-media-cover-up/ ; ).