ABSTRACT
Of the various kinds of deceptive communication, perhaps the most pernicious is the Big Lie. This chapter reviews the major features of the contemporary (American) Big-Lie, focusing on the central importance in it of a diabolic Other. It discusses the steps involved in the social construction of this Other. The Big Lie has four distinctive qualities: mystery, simplicity, prophecy, and infallibility. Mystery, simplicity, prophecy, and infallibility can, of course, be found in both far-left and far-right oratory. Nor has the institutional splitting off of sacred affairs from matters of state come without a price. For if the 20th century has taught the reader anything, it is that the only thing worse than violence perpetrated in the name of a God, is violence undertaken without it. The Big Lie doesn't so much expose the truth about history.
