"A lie will be 'a truth' that forgot to happen." (Mario Quintana)

"A lie will be 'a truth' that forgot to happen." (Mario Quintana) There was a time when people simply lived and believed that the world could be better! They were accomplices in a time they went through together. Today that "time" no longer exists! Or when you are young, you suspend the need to judge others! I came across a book written by Luis Paixão Martins, "How Politicians Lie," which offers a lucid and, to a large extent, uncomfortable diagnosis of the times we live in. "Lying has always coexisted with politics, but for a long time with modesty. It sought to go unnoticed and did not withstand close scrutiny. It is no longer like that. We live in a time when truth and lies have the same value in the media. Facts have given way to perceptions, and leaders have simply stopped feeling the need to disguise themselves." Regarding this, the Alentejo poet António Aleixo summarized, in simple verses, the irreversibility of degradation; in politics, too, there are characters who, by their way of being and acting, have already lost the point of return. “Wine going to vinegar doesn't go back; only by a miracle can it become wine again.” In these times, most politicians have become vinegar: acidic, corrosive, and incapable of bringing anything constructive to the public sphere. There are individuals (politicians) in particular, from all sectors, who are distinguished by their political and moral indigence. Incapable of respecting even their party “friends,” they treat adversaries as enemies to be defeated. Their speeches contain no proposals, only suspicions. Everything is conspiracy, crime, and everyone is sold out. They live on inflammatory phrases, incapable of looking in the mirror and realizing that the greatest damage they cause is to the parties they claim to defend. In the end, all that remains is vinegar: an acidic environment that undermines trust, destroys bridges, and alienates citizens from politics. And, as the poet Aleixo taught, there is no miracle that can turn what has already been lost back into wine. "Lying has become a powerful asset, and citizens seem to be enjoying being deceived!" (Luis Paixão Martins). When people become fanatical, everything is said, whether in football or politics; they don't measure the offense and harm themselves. They drive away friends, they drive away their own supporters who feel bad about the slander, brutality, and bad manners. People we have always considered friends and respectful become very sad. Something is not right. We have to accept the ideas of others... that's democracy. We may not agree, but no one owns the truth. "No liar has a good enough memory to be a successful or accomplished liar." (Abraham Lincoln)