Do Powerful Women In Fiction Have To Tell the Truth?

According to Oxford English Dictionary, the truth is: the disposition to speak or act truly or without deceit. Truly is to act or speak honestly.

So the question is: In Operation Downfall, a political thriller, the protagonist a stunning and brilliant woman, Mariah O’Leary, must lie to the president of the United States in order to expose the corruption within and without the White House.

Can you provide inaccurate information and tell the truth? Of course, if you make a statement to another without the intent to deceive, but provide inaccurate information you have told the truth. Idle, inaccurate gossip and rumors come to mind. Operation Downfall is filled with untruths and clandestine operations by a powerful woman in order to serve her country.

There is a story about a man who ran up to a celebrity and said, “I want to tell you what I just heard about your wife.” The celebrity asked, “Do you know the person who told you?” The man answered, “No.” The celebrity asked, “Did you check out the information to see if it was true before you came to see me?” The man said, “No.” The celebrity said, “Then I do not want to hear it.” The celebrity walked away and did not find out his wife was having an affair with his best friend.

Then there is an exception to the general rule of anything which there always is. In the novel, Operation Downfall, the powerful woman, Mariah O’Leary, does what is necessary including lying and violating the law in order to expose corruption. Sometimes, it is necessary for a powerful woman, a heroine, to lie, cheat and break the rules in order to perform an oblique-public service — the uncovering of presidential corruption in Washington, D.C.

As a fiction writer of Operation Downfall, I have a right and an obligation granted to me by the Novelist’s Bill of Rights under the subsection: ‘Why bother with the truth when you can just make it up? It was duly enacted by Congress, an august body which has enviable experience with making it up.

Cheating and defrauding people are forms of not telling the truth and not providing accurate information to their customers. Ask the CEO’s of the big banks and Wall Street investment and securities firms why they did it. I am sure it had nothing to do with money and an arrogant attitude of being above the law.

“His crimes reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated.” Richard J. Howell, a Federal District Court judge, who sentenced Raj Rajaratnam to prison for insider trading. This quote is appropriate as it applies to the president, vice president and a billionaire brought down by a powerful woman in a thriller. If the clandestine services of the U.S. can do it for the better good, why not a dedicated patriot in the personality of a powerful woman?

What is your opinion of providing accurate information, the truth, for the purpose of causing embarrassment or harm to another with no other benefit? Sounds like campaigning for public office, right? Right.

What is your thought on lying to a corruptician — a bribed politician, a president?

What is your thought on providing inaccurate information, but telling the truth?

What is your comment on having a powerful woman in fiction lying in order to perform oblique-public service?

Contacting Daniel McNeet with comments and constructive criticisms with their constant companion, honesty, will always be welcome.