The Ugly Thing of Art
“Fear" is an interesting word; it has four letters: fear, right? We summon it on various occasions: walking through a dark alley, facing a spider behind a door, fleeing an innocent mouse in the kitchen. But there's a special kind of fear reserved for hearing ugly truths on TV, radio, newspapers, and social media.
Do you know what an ugly truth is? Because a lovely and pretty one is very difficult to hear, and most of the time this kind of hyperbole hides intentions, perhaps a little bit of manipulation, no? An ugly truth is information that triggers the brain into a flood of questions. Not answers, questions. The lovely truths, the pretty ones, those are difficult to find. They tend to hide behind intentions, behind manipulation. The ugly truth just sits there, naked and unwanted, demanding acknowledgment.
“Is it true that he said the President is a friend of that pedophile Epstein?” Grandma asked me over dinner, her fork suspended mid-air. “How could a president, a president! Consort with such filth? And it’s all over the news!” She continued yelling at the screen while the anchor smirked at the scandal that had consumed the entire country.
“This is an ugly truth, grandma,” I replied, my voice disconcerting even to myself. “No one wants to hear about it, and yet it’s the truth.” I acknowledged what we both knew: every person who dares to spread ugliness on behalf of the facts must face retaliation.
And one can tell that the ugly truth is dreadful and bitter. Lawsuits start falling like rainforest rain. Threats explode like popcorn. The important thing, you see, is to polarize any information that involves public figures, especially the president of the nation. It’s funny, though: when one takes the lead, others follow behind, showing off every line of the unpleasant deed. Isn’t it beautiful?
So, fear. I apologize, I had to mislead you with this example. The word’s etymology means sudden danger (fǣr, in Old English). Therefore, the president has been suffering from the danger of truth, because truth, like art, is a dangerous weapon. And the wounded always sue.
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