Great Expectations

I have never thought of myself as a naive person, so imagine my surprise at recently being informed by several different people (ok, one of which was my oldest daughter who thinks I'm perpetually out of the loop) that I have some unrealistic expectations. Our discussions had initially revolved around an unfortunate lawsuit we find ourselves embroiled in, which is whole 'nother blog post (I promise I'll warn you ahead of time), but gradually I began to realize that my expectations are indeed different.
I actually believed this foray into the civil justice system (and I use the term as loosely as possible here) to be about truth. We would tell the truth and the judge would look at the evidence and that would be that. I could not have been more wrong. Instead it's become a game of who's "side" is more believable, and the bigger the spin, the better. It's way worse than buying a used car by the way. But, that isn't even the most disturbing aspect of it all. No one, except me, seems to find any of this the least bit surprising.
There is a growing apathy in this world toward certain previous standards of behavior and it's very disturbing. At first when confronted with this conflict of expectations I was shocked, then I grew defensive disputing my naivety, then, I just became sad. What is wrong with expecting the truth? What is naive about the notion that people should be honest and, better still, be held accountable if they're not? Everywhere I look people seem to treat truth like it's an offering in a cafeteria line to be passed up with disdain like cooked spinach. When did we replace integrity and ethics with justification and apathy? Why don't we hold people to higher standards, especially our courts and elected officials? If we don't require a certain level of sincerity is it reasonable to think anyone at all will adhere to any standards?
I've been told that it's simplistic to say that this course is wrong. Well, I don't care, it *is* wrong. And, you can label me gullible, naive, guileless, whatever, it doesn't matter. I refuse to lower my expectations or to allow justification and cynicism to replace integrity in my life. Great Expectations? You bet, and I won't apologize for it.