I like to believe that people in general are inherent honest, but then I run into yet another ‘used car salesperson’ kind of person who spins a web of incredible lies just to get a deal in their favor. They come under many guises as con-artists extraordinaire, who have become sociological to the point I think they no longer trust anybody, because they no longer trust themselves, thinking that everybody must lie. The sad part is that we have all been conditioned to lie from the day we were born. It’s also where all our conditioned biases, prejudices, and cultural hatreds arise, causing fears of ‘The other’ that drive so much negativity in the world. Lying is either a self-preservation action or a way to manipulate others for a multitude of reasons.
If we are to find our personal sovereignty and live sustainably, we must learn to live with each other and be more accepting of others’ views. What I have observed (as have many others) is how our modern world has increasingly become a world of lies and deceits promogulated by the mass media and social media. Sometimes it is obvious, and other times less so. I was reading through Facebook this morning, and someone had posted something that honored an American Indian actor, his films and his social activism. What I found disappointing was how the writer extolled his acting as a great chief in a period film about Indians set in the 1800s. Only he didn’t play that role! It made me think how much of the other information about that actor might have glaring mistakes in it. It was this kind of glaring problem that awoke me to the problems in the global narrative in 2020 with the Covid crisis.
Story tellers use techniques such as elaboration, embellishment, exaggeration, and aggrandizement to make a story more interesting. But at what point does all this start to become misinformation, misunderstanding and downright lies to push a point. Individually we all have a responsibility to be as honest as possible if we are to have a world where we live together in unity and relative harmony. It’s what we all want, but we have to make that effort to make it so. And we cannot deny another person the right to their way of thinking. And at the same time, we all have a responsibility to listen even when we don’t like what we are hearing. American orator and former slave Frederick Douglass said in a talk about free-speech, “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.” Consider all the censorship and inflexible, controlling ‘wokeness’ that is prevalent in today’s global society. We need to be fully aware of all the biases in our society, but denying discussion because it is uncomfortable is problematic. Before I get in to the psychology of lying, let me tell a story that illustrates just how ridiculous our perspectives can be when we refuse to observe and analyze what we believe.
There is an episode in the original Start Trek series “Let that be your last battlefield’ where the last two antagonists of a long dead civilization are chasing and fighting each other with deep hatred. In the episode, the Enterprise crew encounter two survivors of a war-torn planet, each half black and half white (though on opposite sides from each other), each committed to destroying the other. While the episode was OK (a bit heavy handed), the main point that stuck with me with me was how each of the antagonists was committed to their hatred. Each is convinced at the loathsomeness of the other and how they lie. At one point Kirk says, “aren’t you both the same.” One of the characters, says, “It is obvious the other is an inferior breed.” Spock retorts, “that all that is obvious is that each of you is the same breed.” The character then replies, “Are you blind, I am black on the right side, the other is back on the left side.”
Carefully think about your own biases. How many do you have that are less obvious as black and white, but the differences you see as big are merely variations of the same thing. Imagine all brown-eyed people hating all blue-eyed people, or all tall people above 6 feet (1.8233 M) hating all short people below 6 ft. We don’t go to that extreme (usually) but we do all have our biases, and most come from our conditioning through childhood and then through the mass media we are enveloped within nearly all the time now.
We love our belief confirmation sources and convince ourselves that our sources are right while the others exaggerate or lie when they disagree with us. No less a person than Albert Einstein once warned that the time would come when the very rich so controlled the means of communication that it would be almost impossible for ordinary people to make informed decisions. He wrote about this in 1949 when he saw media biases, it is even more true today.
If we are critical and discerning, what becomes obvious is reflected nicely by the late social critic comedian Goerge Carlin: “Keep in mind, the news media are not independent; they are a sort of bulletin board and public relations firm for the ruling class, the people who run things. Those who decide what news you will or will not hear are paid by, and tolerated purely at the whim of, those who hold economic power. If the parent corporation doesn’t want you to know something, it won’t be on the news. Period. Or, at the very least, it will be slanted to suit them, and then rarely followed up.”
We hate to think that people we trust overall would lie, but until we realize just how prevalent lying is with our global culture, it will not change. Sometimes it is done with good intentions and other times with malice to manipulate others’ perceptions and reality. Psychologist, Daivd Dies, purports there are 15 different types of lies and explains ways to identify them (see link for details). In some cases, people will lie excessively to maintain some self-image, but some people use lies about everything just to control and manipulate – all exist on a continuum of psychopathy (sociopathy to psychopathy). (see link for more detail).
I refer you to the links above rather than just reiterate it all here – they are quite definitive. The greatest lie ever told to humanity in my view, is the lie of scarcity! (see article linked in previous post). The Scarcity Fallacy: “The feeling of scarcity is an irrational fear that rests deep inside all of us, whispering to our subconscious mind that we simply don’t have enough. It is a lie we must overcome if we are to succeed” Brene Brown. “I think abundance and scarcity are two sides of the same coin” says Brene Brown. “The opposite of ‘never enough’ isn’t abundance or ‘more that you could ever imagine‘ … The opposite of scarcity is enough, or what I call Wholeheartedness … vulnerability and worthiness: facing uncertainty, exposure, and emotional risks, and knowing that I am enough.” I’ll be coming back to this in the next post.
As an example, about lies that persist, is the problems of starvation worldwide and the need for more industrial agriculture to create more food. First, we grow enough food in the world to feed everyone more than enough (some estimates are more than 3000 calories available per day). The second is he lie that industrial agriculture is a solution, when in fact it is ruining soil quality with toxic pollution, salination, excessive erosion, and extermination of soil organisms required for healthy soil and healthy local ecosystems. We know that organic polycropping agriculture is healthier, sustainable, and more than capable of producing food for the world. But in many ways, it doesn’t fit the profit driven industrial technology or mindset – it mor readily tends more towards localization. And as for all that food currently produced, much of it is simply burned or thrown away. It’s not financially viable to ship it to feed over a billion hungry or starving people.
The hierarchy love lies, because lies create confusion and dissension. All the better to control us and keep us in the dark. And it has nothing to do with intellect. It is all about core beliefs and whether we are willing to see and analyze them. Last summer during my travels, I met a retired lawyer who is now a spokesperson for the industrial agricultural system. A most intelligent man, but during my discussion with him, he refused to listen to what points I was trying to make about organic agriculture, instead extolling his views as the only right ones. This was echoed by a biological geologist I met this summer, who shared his frustrations at the rigidity of opinions he found as he travelled around the world doing his research, and the unwillingness of people to break through their fast-held beliefs to see alternate perspectives and data.
To Be Continued ……………
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