The Morality of "You can't handle the truth."

Jack Nicholson plays Colonel Nathan R. Jessup in the 1992 film A Few Good Men. When there is an inquiry as to whether the Colonel crossed the legal and moral divide in the treatment of detained prisoners, his disdain for mankind and the general public is represented in his forceful outburst, "You can't handle the truth." That statement begs the question of whether or not it is more moral to follow a rule of law where there are supposed protections for the innocent until proven guilty or whether or not the rule of law may be thrown into the shredder when the State (any government) is carrying out its "goals."

If you had a family member killed by the State and the State claimed that the circumstances were "confidential" would that satisfy you? What if the State also wrongfully killed your family member? Wouldn't a person who violates the State's rule against revealing confidential information be on the high moral ground to reveal the State's wrongful killing? A State cannot be held accountable without someone taking a moral stand against the State and divulging such important matters.

Most politicians will use all their powers to cover up their mistakes and policy failures with disregard for the moral high ground. In addition, they will usually use the noble lie that you are not patriotic if you do not support the State in the furtherance of the State's war or action or non-declared war (whatever you want to call it). In 1775, Samuel Johnson said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." The Patriot Act is a perfect example of how bad laws are passed under the guise of patriotism. Since the State is made up of individuals the State should not be able to commit acts that an individual cannot commit under the guise of patriotism.

This leads to the harsh sentencing of Private Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning). Manning passed some 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks which comprised of many documents showing the willful misconduct and gross disregard for human life by our government. Most main stream news organizations did not report this side of the story. Furthermore, it was found that not one person died as a result of the unauthorized release of the documents. So the question is, should Bradley Manning be jailed behind bars for 35 years for disclosing unlawful State behavior? Decide for yourself but don't answer that question until after you watch this video which was reportedly one of the documents turned over to WikiLeaks by Mannning.