Thanks for your post, which is interesting. As primary caregiver of my late mother, I saw her memory break down over time from Alzheimer's, and realized that we do not remember everything but rather we reconstruct what we need or want to know from what we do remember - thus opening the door as you say to the corruption of earlier memories with inputs from a later time.The example which sticks in my mind is when she told my doctor of long standing that she had always been his patient and that I had not - the reverse of the situation since I had brought her to my house in a different state from her home in order to take care of her. And, obviously, there was no possibility that that was a lie, since there was not the slightest possibility of deceiving my doctor about that. It was simply a symptom of the failure of her memory system. She didn't simply not recall at all, she "recalled" what was directly contrary to reality.
But with all due respect I don't think that relevant to Mrs. Clinton, whose extensive record of "convenient memory syndrome" is crystal clear. Dalrymple has it right:
Being under fire is not like the details of a trivial conversation you had five years ago: it is not easily forgotten. If she were not lying, therefore, it would mean that her inability to distinguish truth from fiction would be almost total. This is a far more dangerous quality in a potential president than mere lying.I suspect (though I cannot prove) that Clinton shares with the former prime minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, that modern psychopathological symptom: the delusion of honesty. A delusional belief is impervious to reason or evidence. In societies like Britain and the United States, once steeped in Judeo-Christian culture, such convictions become common when a belief in Original Sin finds itself replaced by a belief in Original Virtue—particularly one’s own."A belief in Original Virtue—particularly one’s own" strikes me as a perfect definition of "leftism." Lying is simply the logical conclusion of the belief that the end justifies the means, and just about any means is justified if it means assuring the empowerment of your own inherent virtue.
Daniels does quote Nietzsche. To be noted, Nietzsche antedated Freud in his description of unconscious mental processes (although he did not use the word "unconscious'). Both he and Kierkegaard were early existentialists although that word was not invented until much later (Sarte).
Existentialists point out many big decisions are often little decisions made over a period of time. You are still responsible for all those little decisions and even for you decisions you don't think about. This means that Hillary and Bill aren't off the hook for their behavior even though it may not be conscious lying as we define it.