Truthiness . . .

There were two stories in the news today that caught my eye and, at first, seemed non-related. One is about Wesley Snipes and tax evasion and the other is about Merriam-Webster choosing The 2006 Word of the Year.

In the case of Wesley Snipes, he is accused of fraudulently claiming refunds totaling nearly $12 million in 1996 and 1997 on income taxes already paid and with failure to file returns from 1999 through 2004.

According to the indictment, Snipes had his taxes prepared by accountants with a history of filing false returns to reap payments for their clients. The firm, American Rights Litigators, would receive 20 percent of refunds from clients, according to the indictment.

Snipes' case came to light when a man from Pennsylvania was arrested for not paying his taxes. He believed the system was voluntary. The man, Arthur Farnsworth, had a number of "investment funds" designed to hide income and avoid paying taxes. Snipes was listed as one of the investors of these funds.

Arthur Farnsworth, 44, contending that he was not required to pay income tax has been convicted of tax evasion. His lawyer argued that "it did not matter whether Farnsworth was right or wrong. The issue was whether he was sincere in what he believed."

In the other story, Merriam-Webster has decided that The 2006 Word of the Year is . . . "truthiness." Truthiness was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."

"We are at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs," said Merriam-Webster president John Morse.

Colbert, who once derided the folks at Springfield-based Merriam-Webster as the "word police" and a bunch of "wordinistas," was pleased."Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honor me."

The thing that I find interesting about these two stories is the common mind-set that truth no longer needs to be "reality based." Apparently, whatever you want to believe is the new truth. In a world that believes Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth even though it is based upon bad science, half-truths and outright lies, and where people are claiming the Twin Towers came down because of some right wing government plot even though we all watched it happen live on TV, it only makes sense that the Word of the Year would celebrate the ephemeral qualities of truth.

The Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, was known for "The Big Lie" or argumentum ad nauseum, the name given to a policy of repeating a falsehood until it is taken to be the truth. Bill Clinton, former U.S. President, in known for lying under oath and the Weasel Doctrine which poses the theory that truth depends upon "what "is" is."

Although it is true that "truth" can be subjective at times, there are larger, universal truths that will never be corrupted by weak-minded individuals or groups. At one time, our founding fathers considered these truths to be self-evident. Now, we live in a world where they need to be spelled out.

But maybe, if we stand against the lies and repeat what we know to be true often enough, it may eventually be taken to be the truth . . . again. And then it won't matter what "is" is.

.