Dependent on Lies
Adam Rahn
February 25, 2006
"We lied to each other so much/That in nothing we trust" Trust Dave Mustaine
Artists, ideally, should inspire us and/or reveal to us what we had not understood before. Singers/song writers are called artists and often I can not understand why. Rarely a song will do as it’s supposed to but then—ah, an epiphany results. Several years ago such a rare song came from an unexpected source and the song revealed to me the source of much of our social ills.
We have myriad types of lies that we use. Most people would be offended if it were pointed out that they are liars. It’s because we tend to think of the white lies or lies of necessity as not lying; but, this is part of the pathology—we are no longer averse to lying. We, of course, can recognize other people’s lies when those lies affect us.
Where we have really lost control of lying is in training our children to lie. For just one example: how many have been taught, or teach their own children, that once a year a godlike man who lives at the North Pole flies around the world in a single night delivering presents? Of course everyone recognizes this story but I have found that many people become incensed when you point out that telling their children such a story is, in fact, lying to them. Eventually the children discover the truth. For some the moment of discovery is emotionally traumatic—a story they were taught to believe religiously by the people that they had trusted most is just another lie. How much does this make the children question the other ‘important’ matters about which they are told? Especially confusing is the contradiction of being taught and disciplined about speaking the truth while our society as a whole lies with impunity. This is how most of us were raised and so it is no mystery why we are pathological about lying.
With the Clinton administration, we the people were dragged through a gut-wrenching ordeal of Clinton lying about his escapades. We do know Clinton lied and was impeached for lying. What we don’t know is how much this politically motivated trial has damaged our ability to function as a democracy. Clearly, we are unwilling to strive with presidential lies again—even when it is of grave national concern.
When it comes to dealing with lies—even egregious lies that results in wars, the plundering of our national treasury (deficit spending), the dismantling of "inalienable rights", and the very livelihoods of those who still work for a living being taken and sent to far away lands for the profits of those who don’t work for a living—we seem to fall into several disparate groups. Some, for blind partisanship, loved tearing down the previous administration for his lies and yet refuse to acknowledge that "their president" is a liar. Some simply can’t accept that any administration would really lie on such a grand scale so they dismiss the matter as being politics as usual. Some, for insidious reasons, like the lies and the objectives that the lies are fulfilling. And then, an astonishingly small minority is demanding some accountability for these lies.
With any manner of addiction the first step in treatment is to acknowledge the problem exists. Our nation has an addiction to lies.
Comments welcomed at adam_rahn@earthlink.net
Artists, ideally, should inspire us and/or reveal to us what we had not understood before. Singers/song writers are called artists and often I can not understand why. Rarely a song will do as it’s supposed to but then—ah, an epiphany results. Several years ago such a rare song came from an unexpected source and the song revealed to me the source of much of our social ills.
We have myriad types of lies that we use. Most people would be offended if it were pointed out that they are liars. It’s because we tend to think of the white lies or lies of necessity as not lying; but, this is part of the pathology—we are no longer averse to lying. We, of course, can recognize other people’s lies when those lies affect us.
Where we have really lost control of lying is in training our children to lie. For just one example: how many have been taught, or teach their own children, that once a year a godlike man who lives at the North Pole flies around the world in a single night delivering presents? Of course everyone recognizes this story but I have found that many people become incensed when you point out that telling their children such a story is, in fact, lying to them. Eventually the children discover the truth. For some the moment of discovery is emotionally traumatic—a story they were taught to believe religiously by the people that they had trusted most is just another lie. How much does this make the children question the other ‘important’ matters about which they are told? Especially confusing is the contradiction of being taught and disciplined about speaking the truth while our society as a whole lies with impunity. This is how most of us were raised and so it is no mystery why we are pathological about lying.
With the Clinton administration, we the people were dragged through a gut-wrenching ordeal of Clinton lying about his escapades. We do know Clinton lied and was impeached for lying. What we don’t know is how much this politically motivated trial has damaged our ability to function as a democracy. Clearly, we are unwilling to strive with presidential lies again—even when it is of grave national concern.
When it comes to dealing with lies—even egregious lies that results in wars, the plundering of our national treasury (deficit spending), the dismantling of "inalienable rights", and the very livelihoods of those who still work for a living being taken and sent to far away lands for the profits of those who don’t work for a living—we seem to fall into several disparate groups. Some, for blind partisanship, loved tearing down the previous administration for his lies and yet refuse to acknowledge that "their president" is a liar. Some simply can’t accept that any administration would really lie on such a grand scale so they dismiss the matter as being politics as usual. Some, for insidious reasons, like the lies and the objectives that the lies are fulfilling. And then, an astonishingly small minority is demanding some accountability for these lies.
With any manner of addiction the first step in treatment is to acknowledge the problem exists. Our nation has an addiction to lies.
Comments welcomed at adam_rahn@earthlink.net
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