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The election is already over, and we’ve all lost

by Judi Zirin-Hyman, contributor - 10/11/16 3:55 PM ET

He may spin this. We don’t really know what will happen between now and November. But we have lost already, regardless of who wins the presidential election of 2016. We’ve lost dignity. We’ve lost credibility on the world stage. And most of all, we can mourn the death of substance.

In this election cycle, we’ve seen how little truth matters, and how much spin does. The winner of the style vs. substance debate is clear.

Truth no longer matters. A man can talk about his fervent faith and moments later decry as false quotes that are clearly verifiable-on camera or in writing. In the realm of political expedience, even those wanting to legislate religious principles find the Ninth Commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness, negotiable.

For politics, never known as a clean and honest business, even the facade of decency is being ripped away, giving way without protest to clickbait and sound bites. Even pretense is obsolete. Rape cases, illegalities, open hate or disdain, unconstitutional propositions, constantly changing positions… Candidates under investigation, pointing fingers, the thrust of each campaign premised on being the lesser of evils.

The idea of consistency is outré or laughable. We have collectively either embraced or fallen prey to a culture that has given up gravitas and an expectation of, if not “truthfulness,” propriety. What’s left and lauded is the ability to immediately influence public opinion, in whatever way, for whatever purpose.

In that realm, Russian President Vladimir Putin becomes touted as a great leader. Deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi too. Also, for that matter, Mussolini, Hitler, and whoever else (even without the immediacy of today’s powerful and widespread media presence) could manipulate people and culture to achieve whatever purported ends. It’s Machiavelli meets the internet, and in the contemporary instant gratification/advertising/spin culture, what “wins” is whatever works for the moment.

There is no substance, there is no truth, there is no morality-all are relative and manipulable and subject to both interpretation and reinterpretation, transformation and “evolution”. And if you are powerful enough, law no longer matters. People no longer matter either — they are reduced to the sum of either private parts to be grabbed, faces and bodies to be dismissed, and, even when beloved and revered, a “piece of ass”.

It doesn’t count if you said it when you were younger. Even if younger is 59. Let’s be “real” — this is how everyone talks, what everyone does. We’re in the locker room.

In the end, what we’ve lost is any concept of “real”. We believe what we want to, or are told to, or have been led to. Nothing is real but temporary consensus, nothing goes deeper than influencing immediate opinion and belief. We live firmly ensconced on the surface.

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If we try to look deeper, we find ourselves entranced by what we see: our own faces reflected in the pond of humanity, the ultimate “selfie”. So we skate along on that pond’s surface, for the moment and in the moment, content enough.

Zirin-Hyman is an attorney and freelance writer in the New York area.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.