We must respond. We must respond effectively. We must respond effectively now.
Irrespective of my attachment to the word, calling out today’s rampant mendacity is not sufficient. “Mendacity” does not do justice to the attacks on truth, on science, and on fundamental American ideals–the Rule of Law, freedom of speech and of the press, separation of church and state, the independent authority of three branches of government, as well as the welcoming melting pot. “Mendacity” does not do justice to the complete disregard of international order and international law. “Mendacity” does not do justice to the threats to democracy. “Mendacity” does not do justice to this undermining of the entire fabric of a civil society.
Like it or not, admit it or not, but we have become inured to mendacity. We assume mendacity and, therefore, we are prone to accept it.
And, now, Minneapolis.
Perfidy.
Perfidy takes mendacity and adds deceit and bad faith, disloyalty and faithlessness, corruption of speech and behavior, and treachery. It is insidious; it is a self-perpetuating cycle that grows of its own accord in the absence of aggressive and intentional intervention. It is mean-spirited and indecent.
Perfidy is not just an absence of ethics and of virtue; it is the opposite of ethics and of virtue.
Do the purveyors of perfidy know that they are perfidious? Are they intentionally perfidious? Does it matter? No. Is psychopathy or ideological fervor a defense? No.
Mendacity is annoying; it is frustrating. Maybe recognizing mendacity is enough to counter its consequences. Perfidy is not so benign; it is malignant, it is metastatic.
I started to list specific examples, to provide a rendition. But, enough! We know it. At the risk of repeating, and to paraphrase Big Daddy: we all can smell it. The perfidy smells like death. Minneapolis, Venezuela, Greenland. The Kennedy Center, the East Wing, cryptocurrency deals. USAID, DOGE, vaccines. Putin. A Gaza resort. Pardons, Jerome Powell, Jeffrey Epstein.
The budget for ICE, a paramilitary force, now is so enormous that it places the organization among the largest, best-funded militaries in the world.
We know history. We know what happens when a society allows the perfidy to fester; we know what happens when a society allows itself to be torn asunder, one strain at a time. History teaches us through rhymes and narratives, not direct analogies and comparisons.
Perfidy can be found in a fire at the Reichstag, a fire at the Cinema Rex, or maybe with the fiction of mobs of riotous anarchists, Communists, and Marxists. It’s one thing to double or quadruple count crowd sizes (or to cheat at golf or lie about one’s health); it’s another to create the circumstances on the streets of cities that will without doubt lead to “necessary” military-style responses.
Leadership, ethical leadership, begins with acknowledging the situation and not merely thinking that the problem will pass, not assuming that some institution will ultimately enforce a guardrail, and not to putting blinders on out of fear of one’s Senate seat, of one’s short-term pocketbook, or of a nasty tweet.
Perfidy is contagious. Worse, it is gradual and masquerades as normalcy, one step at a time.
Acknowledgement, though, is not sufficient. Those with power and influence, the professionals, must act. Not just on the streets and with op-eds where your power and influence is muted and indistinct. But in the places where you practice and lead.
Business leaders and the wealthy, do not assume that the S&P 500 is impermeable. Do not conclude that the dismantling of environmental regulations means that there are no environmental threats. Lawyers, do not pretend that the rules of ethics favoring zealous advocacy means that the Rule of Law is not your client. Judges, do not pretend that the world does not exist outside of your courtrooms and vanilla precedents. Technologists, do not hide behind your would-be morally neutral algorithms. Doctors, you actually do harm by not finding the avenues to serve your patients properly. Clergy, speak up; don’t repeat the cowardice of the clergy in 1935 Germany. Civil Servants, perhaps this is the time to stay rather than take buy-outs, to take affirmative steps to move the redlines further away rather than searching for them to appear.
FASPE does not have a track for politicians. If we did, would we need anything more than pocket mirrors, asking each of our senators and congressional representatives, elected by the people and not appointed by the President, to look in the mirror at least three times per day? Can you look yourself in the eye and answer to yourself about what is truly motivating you? Are you telling the truth to the people whom you represent? How will history treat you? How will your grandchildren judge you?
Perhaps what we are seeing is mere mendacity, mere lies that can be reversed. Maybe, however, this is perfidy with real, long-term consequences. We need true leadership from our leaders; we need our future leaders to speak up and push today’s leaders. One at a time and collectively. With action, one small act at a time. If we care, we must each ask what we can do, what we are doing, to counter the perfidy. 10,000 steps and at least one act of professional ethics.
"Considering Professional Ethics" is a monthly essay shared in the FASPE e-newsletter.
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