I saw this advert the other day.
It sums it all up really.
- People in power are up to no good. They have ulterior motives.
- Journalists are crusaders for truth. They will uncover those motives.
Seems perfectly reasonable. And indeed, it is what we need for in these troubled times.
But there is a problem. In A Wilderness of Mirrors, I pointed out:
The hermeneutic of suspicion has reduced all human interactions to power plays, a kind of social survival of the assertive. It sees no possibility of an alternative, which means there can be no grounds for optimism whatsoever. It makes cynicism both inevitable and prudent. Yet this reductionism flattens the possibility of authority ever being wielded for the flourishing of others and ignores the genuine human capacity for love that is derived from being created in the imago dei. (p155)
There are people trying to do the right thing in power. And there are occasions when incompetence, unfortunate coincidences, and accidents, make the difference. More so than ulterior motives.
