Ducks in a Row: the Prevalence of Lying
by Miki Saxon
Do you wonder what’s happened to people over the last century and into this one?
Did something change or was it always this way?
When did fudging, dissembling, dissimulating, equivocating, falsifying, fibbing, inventing, misleading, misrepresenting, misstating, and prevaricating become business as usual?
Call it what you will, it is still lying.
Leaders, followers, parents, kids; religious or not; whether business or personal, everybody does it.
We lie to avoid confrontation; improve results; sidestep repercussions.
We lie to our friends, parents, kids, congregations, clergy people, bosses, workers, colleagues and service providers.
From why something/someone is late to income tax to stock option backdating and corporate results to campaign promises and disagreeing ideologies—the list is both endless and all encompassing.
Most of us don’t see ourselves as liars, usually because there are “valid reasons” for it.
But ‘reasons’ don’t change the bottom line and Plato’s words ring as true today as when he spoke them,
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
That infection has become a pandemic, spreading from one to another in both obvious and insidious ways.
It’s doubtful that there is any way to actually eradicate lying, but the next time you deviate from the truth think hard about your reasons; most of the time they won’t hold up.
Image credit: Svadilfari on flickr
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