CHAPTER 4: The DEMOCRATIC (R)EVOLUTION We are better than we realize we are. For the first time, we can now create institutions of governance that elicit our best. Copyright 2026 by Paul L. LaClair
Value for Monday of Week 18 in the season of Growth
Being Sincere
Sincerity is the emotional component of honesty – the desire to be honest.
- Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite. [attributed to Charles Spurgeon]
- . . . for a creative writer possession of the “truth” is less important than emotional sincerity. [George Orwell]
- I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that’s the way I am. [John Wayne]
- For years now I have heard the word “wait.” It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This “wait” has almost always meant “never.” [Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963).]
Real
True Narratives
Woodrow Wilson was an intellectual, a liberal in the classic sense and a champion of civic virtue. He was also a moralist, though by today’s standards, his racism leaves a gaping hole in his ethical standards. Though his League of Nations could not withstand political opposition, it and his Fourteen Points laid the groundwork for a system of international law and diplomacy that could bring peaceful order to a chaotic world.
- Patricia O’Toole, The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made (Simon & Schuster, 2018).
- John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (Knopf, 2009).
- H.W. Brands, Woodrow Wilson (Times Books, 2003).
- Ronald J. Pestritto, Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2005).
- Woodrow Wilson, The Essential Political Writings (Lexington Books, 2005).
- Mario R. DiNunzio, ed., Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-President (NYU Press, 2006).
- Woodrow Wilson, On Being Human (Kessinger Publishing, 1987).
- Woodrow Wilson, Constitutional Government in the United States (1908)
- Woodrow Wilson, papers
- Woodrow Wilson, archives from Presidential Library & Museum
Other works:
- Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail expressed the author's sincerity and simultaneously challenged his critics to their own sincerity.
- James B. Stewart, Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff (The Penguin Press, 2011).
From the dark side:
- Tim Bouverie, Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War (Tim Duggan Books, 2019): “ . . . the appeasement policies of the 1930s were a spectacular failure, strategically and morally. But even when Hitler’s insatiability became obvious, the right response for the British and the French wasn’t necessarily obvious still: ‘It was a dilemma between honor and the horrors of a war that they were by no means certain they could win.’”
- Sylvia Jukes Morris, Price of Fame: The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce (Random House, 2014): “She was ‘an accomplished seductress’ who married once, if not twice, for money and position . . .”
- Charles Seife, Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception (Viking, 2010).
- Meredith D. Clark, We Tried to Tell Y’All: Black Twitter and the Rise of Digital Counternarratives (Oxford University Press, 2024): “Black Twitter’s most lasting legacy, according to Clark, is pulling off a ‘full-scale revolution’ in how American news media reported on Black people — which she correctly argues has a direct correlation to how people perceive the value of Black life and govern it. She intends the book as a warning: To continue on in the tradition of white media elites will lead to a further disenfranchisement of nonwhite people (and working-class white people, too) and will lead to the collapse of the country.”
Richard Nixon is a classic dark-side figure, whose career illustrates the knowing dishonesty of insincerity. He was President when the nation still believed in truth – or said it did.
- Tim Weiner, One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon (Henry Holt and Co., 2015): the book “zeroes in on the Vietnam War and Wagergate”.
- Evan Thomas, Being Nixon: A Man Divided (Random House, 2015): “It is ironic that Nixon, by discrediting faith in government through the Watergate scandal, contributed mightily to (an) inward push, away from selflessness and service”.
- Michael Dobbs, King Richard: Nixon and Watergate: An American Tragedy (Knopf, 2021): the book limits “its narrative mostly to the first hundred days after Nixon’s second inauguration, when the victorious president looked poised to coast through another four years before the wagons of the Watergate scandal started to circle closer and closer”.
- Tom Brokaw, The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate (Random House, 2019); here is an interview with the author.
Technical and Analytical Readings
- Lionel Trilling, Sincerity and Authenticity (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) (1971-1972).
- Adam B. Seligman, et. al., Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity (Oxford University Press, 2008).
- Elizabeth Markovits, The Politics of Sincerity: Plato, Frank Speech, and Democratic Judgment (Penn State University Press, 2008).
- Sorin Baiasu & Sylvie Loriaux, eds., Sincerity in Politics and International Relations (Routledge, 2017).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
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The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, in which former defense Secretary Robert McNamara owns up to his mistakes leading to the Viet Nam War
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. [Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1906), Chapter I, “I Discover Moses and the Bullrushers”.]
From the dark side:
Whatever may have been the obstinate injustice of destiny in this case, Thénardier was one of those men who understand best, with the most profundity and in the most modern fashion, that thing which is a virtue among barbarous peoples and an object of merchandise among civilized peoples,--hospitality. Besides, he was an admirable poacher, and quoted for his skill in shooting. He had a certain cold and tranquil laugh, which was particularly dangerous. His theories as a landlord sometimes burst forth in lightning flashes. He had professional aphorisms, which he inserted into his wife's mind. "The duty of the inn-keeper," he said to her one day, violently, and in a low voice, "is to sell to the first comer, stews, repose, light, fire, dirty sheets, a servant, lice, and a smile; to stop passers-by, to empty small purses, and to honestly lighten heavy ones; to shelter travelling families respectfully: to shave the man, to pluck the woman, to pick the child clean; to quote the window open, the window shut, the chimney-corner, the arm-chair, the chair, the ottoman, the stool, the feather-bed, the mattress and the truss of straw; to know how much the shadow uses up the mirror, and to put a price on it; and, by five hundred thousand devils, to make the traveller pay for everything, even for the flies which his dog eats!" [Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862), Volume II – Cosette; Book Third – Accomplishment of a Promise Made To a Dead Woman, Chapter II, “Two Complete Portraits”.]
What happens when one party is sincere and the other is not?
- Henry James, Washington Square (1881): an heiress, whose domineering father has left her at a disadvantage in gaining men’s attentions, is faced with the question whether the young man who proclaims his love for her is sincere.
- Robert Harris, Munich: A Novel (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018): “Britain’s prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, flew to the birthplace of the Third Reich to meet Hitler and try to stave off a conflict. Twenty-four hours later, Chamberlain returned to London, where he brandished an agreement permitting Nazi Germany to occupy the territory and pronounced four words that would forever be linked with naïveté and appeasement: 'Peace for our time.'”
- Lucia Berlin, Evening in Paradise: More Stories (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2018): stories about women confronted with challenges to their sweetness and sincerity: “One thing that makes Berlin so valuable is her gift for evoking the sweetness and earnestness of young women who fall in love (one thinks that being a good wife is handing her husband his coffee handle first, while she grasps the hot side) and then catching them at that moment when things begin to turn, when the trees of their being are forced to grow bark.”
Novels, from the dark side:
- Catherine Chidgey, Pet: A Novel (Europa Editions, 2023): “Everyone in this novel has a weakness to be exploited, from war trauma of a Polish nun who lives at the convent to Amy’s embarrassment over the “foreign things” in her lunchbox. Mrs. Price’s sinister gift is her ability not only to capitalize on those weaknesses but to show others how to do so as well.”
- Steven King, Holly: A Novel (Scribner, 2023): “An emerita professor of English, Emily will discuss literature with a young Black poet, while privately muttering racial slurs to herself. . . What the professors do to their victims is a stark expression of a society tearing itself apart. Their crimes are queasily believable against the lurid, cartoonish strains of fear and division that surround them.”
- Katie Kitamura, Audition: A Novel (Riverhead Books, 2025), “examines the performances we put on for others — and exposes the shams that underpin them.”
Poetry
They went home and told their wives, / that never once in all their lives, / had they known a girl like me, / But... They went home.
They said my house was licking clean, / no word I spoke was ever mean, / I had an air of mystery, / But... They went home.
My praises were on all men's lips, / they liked my smile, my wit, my hips, / they'd spend one night, or two or three. / But...
[Maya Angelou, “They Went Home”]
From the dark side:
- Edgar Lee Masters, “Dora Williams”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
“Blind from birth, Arthur Blake learned guitar as a way of earning a living in a hostile world.” Blind Blake was known at least in death as “King of Ragtime Guitar”. He “. . . seems to have been the primary developer of ‘finger-style’ ragtime on the guitar, the six-string equivalent to playing ragtime on the piano. Blake mastered this form so completely that few, if any, guitarists who have learned to play in this style since Blake have been able to match his quite singular achievements in this realm.” Rev. Gary Davis said “I like Blake because he plays sporty.” His blues licks were intricate, yet raw and unadorned, as demonstrated on his playlists. “Anyone who hears Blind Blake can't help but be astonished by his sincerity, his gentle, off-the-cuff humor and the sheer effortlessness with which he plays some of the most treacherously complex finger-work on the face of creation.”
Cara Dillon is a popular Irish traditional, folk and ballad singer with a sweet plaintive soprano voice. Drawing on her roots, she exhibits an “irresistibly natural personality and mesmerising ability to relate a great story in song”. True to the Irish song tradition, her “slow songs” are tinged with melancholy. She is still creating her musical legacy.
Dmirty Bortnyansky composed 35 short Sacred Concertos for the Orthodox Church (list of recorded performances), “which forbids the use of musical instruments . . .” “Also called the Russian Palestrina, he has been credited with cultivating a rich tradition of Russian Orthodox choral music.” Written for a capella choir, these works capture the emotional virtue of unadorned sincerity. Russian State Symphonic Cappella under Valeri Polyansky has recorded all of them, in Volume 1 (1999) (69’), Volume 2 (2000) (62’), Volume 3 (2000) (66’), Volume 4 (2001) (67’), and Volume 5 (2001) (61’); Volume 6 (2002) (74’) consists of 10 Sacred Concertos for double choir.
In the compositions of Germaine Tailleferre, we hear “a deeply felt sincerity of expression and an effortless naturalness in how it elicits shy beauty from her hiding.” “A child prodigy, Germaine Tailleferre began playing the piano at age two, was composing by age eight, and was strong-willed enough to begin lessons at the Paris Conservatoire at age 12, against her father’s wishes.” “Tailleferre composed all her life, writing 178 works for piano, music for chamber orchestra, ballet, and vocal music, which helped her support herself after two unsuccessful marriages. Her unique style employed bitonality, jazz, and cabaret rhythms in her musical writing. She also wrote incidental music for theater and radio and was a skilled film music composer.” Her works include:
- Sonata No. 2 for Violin & Piano (1951) (approx. 13’) (list of recorded performances)
- String Quartet (1919) (approx. 10’) (list of recorded performances)
- Harp Sonata (1953) (approx. 11’) (list of recorded performances)
- Piano Trio (1917, rev. 1978) (approx. 14’) (list of recorded performances)
Other compositions:
- Aleksandr Glazunov, Symphony No. 6 in C minor, Op. 58 (1896) (approx. 36-40’) (list of recorded performances): “In the profoundly sincere music of the Sixth Symphony, there is nothing superficial or borrowed, everything is connected with the need to express its inner being” [from the program notes for this album]. Similarly, his Symphony No. 1 in E Major, Op. 5, "Slavonian Symphony" (Slavyanskaya) (1884) (approx. 32-36’) (list of recorded performances), and Symphony No. 3 in D Major, Op. 33 (1890) (approx. 42-52’) (list of recorded performances).
- Malcolm Arnold, Symphony No. 2, Op. 40 (1953) (approx. 26-27’) (score) (list of recorded performances): “. . . a carefree surface often conceals a dark and dangerous undercurrent, which can rise to conflict with the superficial jollity, or simply ‘blow it away’. Arnold is something of an 'English Shostakovich', as exemplified . . . by the Second Symphony.”
- Arnold Bax, Legend Sonata in F-sharp minor for Violincello and Piano (1943) (approx. 24-26’) (list of recorded performances) “shows Bax in very reflective mood as if looking back longingly over the years to that time in his life when he was most on fire as an artist and had created his most perfect work”.
- Franz Berwald, Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, "Sinfonie Serieuse" (1842) (approx. 30-33’) (list of recorded performances)
- Edwin York Bowen, Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 33 (1913) (approx. 38’) “is in the same key as the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with which it shares a similar weight, clear-cut design and brilliance of execution.”
- Antonín Dvořák, Youth Concerto in A Major for Cello and Orchestra, B. 10 (1865) (approx. 46’) (list of recorded performances)
- John Harbison, Piano Trio No. 2 (2003) (approx. 18’): “In his notes Harbison admits Haydn is the model for the piece, adding that he could ‘entertain, reassure, and frighten, all in one place’.”
- Harbison, The Violist’s Notebooks (2002): Book I (approx. 8-10’); Book II (approx. 8-9’): “. . . Harbison freely admits his inspiration, in this case the viola Caprices by the ‘subversively challenging’ Bartolomeo Campagnoli . . .”
- Carl Reinecke, Flute Sonata, “Undine”, Op. 167 (1882) (approx. 19-22’) (list of recorded performances), plays out on the ambiguous side of sincerity. The story, drawn from Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's novella, is similar to Hans Christian Andersen’s more famous fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”. “The tale depicts Undine, a water spirit, who longs for an immortal soul which can only be obtained through true love with a mortal man.” Is she innocent, or conniving?
- Mieczysław Weinberg, The Idiot, Op. 144 (1986) (approx. 220’) is based on “Dostoevsky’s book about a good man. Interestingly enough, Prince Myshkin’s goodness represents itself not in virtue but in innocence.” “The young Prince Myshkin, who suffers from epilepsy, returns utterly destitute to St. Petersburg after a several years’ stay in a Swiss sanatorium. He immediately finds himself involved in a network of intrigues surrounding the dark-eyed beauty Nastassia. His love for her forces the decent Myshkin into an uneasy relationship with his impulsive rival Parfion Rogoshin, a rich merchant’s son.”
Albums:
- Thibaut Roussel and Les Musiciens du Roi, “Le Coucher du Roi ” (59’), “an informal and intimate concert from the king’s bedchamber”
- Various artists, “Cameroon Garage Funk” (2021) (65’): this a collection of tracks from Cameroon in the 1970’s conveys a feeling of earnestness. “Through the 1970s there was a church in Cameroon where funk bands would go to record music into a single, exquisitely placed microphone.”
- Various artists, “Industrial Strength Bluegrass: Southwestern Ohio’s Mucical Legacy” (2021) (53’): they wear it on their shirtsleeves. “'Folk music with overdrive,' Alan Lomax called it. The lyrics and vocal phrasing looked to the quiet mountains and farms, and the driving, steely banjo countered them with the sounds of a new reality.”
- April Verch & Cody Walters, “Passages and Partings” (2023) (44’): “Working on a foundation of old-time tunes culled from a variety of sources, a number of new Verch originals are found . . . Verch and Walters put their spin on tunes ranging from classic country . . . to century-old tunes . . .”
- Paul Dunmall, “Away with Troubles and Anxieties!” (2025) (58’): “. . . Dunmall's big-hearted spiritual sincerity is in evidence. The title track has him playing penny whistle with enough poise and beauty to provoke a sigh of sad wonder for the infuriating and wondrous complexities of life.”
On the dark side:
- George Gershwin, Porgy and Bess (1935) (approx. 130-190’) (libretto) (list of recorded performances), is based on the 1925 novel, Porgy, by Dubose Heyward. “The story begins in summertime on Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina. Disabled beggar Porgy is in love with Bess, who's entangled with violent dock worker, Crown, and plagued by drug dealer and con man, Sportin' Life. It's a community where everyone is trying to get by.” It presents a “traditional image of Porgy, a disabled beggar, and the woman he loves, Bess, who has suffered from abuse and addiction.” They handle their difficulties in opposite ways, at least on the surface. Recordings feature Warfield & Price in 1952, White & Mitchell in 1975, Albert & Dale in 1976, White & Haymon in 1986, and Powell & Lister in 2002.
- André-Ernest Modeste Grétry, Le Magnifique (1773) (approx. 80’) tells the tale of a conniving suitor.
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad & Third Coast Percussion, “The Innocent”
- Dvořák, Waldesruhe (Silent Woods), for Cello and Orchestra, B 182 (1893) [From the Bohemian Forest, B 133, Op. 68, No. 5]
- Sam Smith, “Stay with Me” (lyrics)
- Alicia Keys, “If I Ain’t Got You” (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Frida Kahlo, Portrait of Eva Frederick (1931)
- Valentin Serov, Mika Morozov (1901)
- Giovanni Batista Tiepolo, Prudence, Sincerity and Temperance (1743)
- Raphael Sanzio, Portrait of Julius II (c. 1512)
- Hans Memling, Portrait of Anthony of Burgundy (1467)
Film and Stage
- Before Sunrise, a romantic tale about “two nice kids, literate, sensitive, tentative, intoxicated by the fact that their lives stretch out before them, filled with mystery and hope, and maybe love”, who meet, are strongly attracted to each other and spend most of their time talking.
- Faces, this film consisting “almost exclusively of tight, uncomfortable close-ups” exploresan unhappy marriage
- La Chienne(The Bitch), about one character who is sincere and another who is not
- Wilson: though his legacy is ugly with racism, Woodrow Wilson saw himself as a man of high principle.
- Closely Watched Trains(Ostre Sledované Vlaky): a film about innocence, in which a young man performs a heroic act without heroic motives
From the dark side:
- The Heiress, based on Henry James’ novellaWashington Square: is the young man in love with her or merely after her wealth?
- Dark Eyes (Oci Ciornie), illustrating that the grass on someone else’s lawnmay not be as green as it looks from a distance
- Lola, about looking the other way
- Play Misty for Me, about dangerousdeception
- The Servantwas serving himself
