A Culture of Lying

reply to post by Mary Rose


Recently in the research forum, ladyinwaiting and TheMythLives did a wonderful thread on several aspects of lying. You might be interested:

Lies, Aspersions and Calumny

To lie is to deceive. Animals do it all of the time and not necessarily out of a sense of survival. Let me share an anecdote that will illustrate this point:

Many years back I fund myself in possession of a very clever and mischievous little parrot. His wings were clipped so I felt no harm in letting him roam about the exterior of his cage. That was until he found the window sill. It only took a day or so before the window sill was completely covered in bird crap. After that, anytime I found him wandering over to the window I would scold and lock him up in his cage. Birds can be cunning and deceptive; after a while he stopped going over to the window sill in my presence. Instead, any time he would hear me walking into the room, I would hear frantic scurrying and clanging while he dashed toward his cage. . Sure enough, I would enter the room and there he would be, sitting on his perch staring at me innocently. Behind him, the window sill would be covered in crap.

Animals deceive and in their own way, lie. People are just higher evolved animals. . .

...everybody lies and has justifications for it...

...my primary justification is that i dont OWE anyone the truth about anything... people who think they DESERVE the truth about everything need a radical colon cleansing (jalapeno juice, lmao)...

...telling the truth or telling a lie is my choice - and - my decision is based upon my perception of the question asker, not their perception of themselves...

...ie: when my kids were little and asked one of those big questions, like where do babies come from - i told the truth in proper terms (penis, vagina - not peanut and coochee)...

...the end result was that they were satisfied that mom knew a lot about the subject and it reinforced the belief that they could ask me anything...

...as their question asking ability matured, sometimes they were told "thats none of your biz" because sometimes thats the truth...

Originally posted by Mary Rose
It seems that people accept as normal that people lie. When trapped, people do lie.

But what about lying for convenience to people we have a relationship with or a responsibility to - to avoid having to deal with an embarrassment or an annoyance? Or to get people to do what's in your interest but not theirs? Or for ego gratification?

We know that the "elite" believe in the "noble lie." But do ordinary people believe in it as well? I'm beginning to suspect they do. I say "they" because I am averse to lying. I really don't want to be lied to and I lie only when I think I have to or I think it's forgiven under the circumstances.

I think we have a culture of lying. It's disturbing to me. It's as if we're being lied to by the powers that be because that's what we all accept as perfectly okay. Shrug. Who cares?

I do.

They say children who lie are more intelligent...


lemme gewgle fer yew.

This week in the Wall Street Journal, Shirley Wang reports that it's possible to plot the cognitive development of children along an axis of how well they can lie. As the brains of children mature, they become more skilled at fabricating stories, controlling their body language, and disguising their true knowledge of events. According to Wang, then, you shouldn't necessarily worry if your kid is getting better at lying, because all it means for sure is that his or her brain is growing more sophisticated.

www.theatlanticwire.com...

Toddlers who lie will do better

Are lying children naturally smarter?

survival mechanism?

ps: damn near everything you see on tv is a lie, and most like the internet and this website 70 percent lies?

[edit on 6-9-2010 by Lysergic]

“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.”

-Hitler

The question is not why people lie, but why people wish to be lied to.

[edit on 6-9-2010 by AProphet1233]

Originally posted by Lysergic
They say children who lie are more intelligent...

"They" being NWO propagandists!

Originally posted by Lysergic
ps: damn near everything you see on tv is a lie, and most like the internet and this website 70 percent lies?

I think you're right.

I believe that the idea that all children "lie" is being confused with the idea that children have an imagination.

When I was a kid, my mom would call it telling "stories" or say "that was sure a tall one,"...in otherwords there is a difference between lies and imagination, espically with children.

As for telling lies when we mature, I agree that most people do lie, personally, I work at not "telling tales"...and of course those that have taken the time to know me, seem quite accepting, but then we never know if they are lying, do we... hehe

~holly

reply to post by Mary Rose


Every job I have had in health care, education, Administration, required documentation. I have very rarely seen documentation that did not contain lies. Hospitals, schools, contractors, etc.
I would have lost my last school job if my supervisor did not like me. She understood, and had someone else write in the "lying" part of her weekly paperwork as I did not want to submit false documents.
On another note, our brand-new freeway overpass had a chunk fall out of it the other day. I wonder if they trace the documentation they can find what is wrong?
I mean, we are expecting a big earthquake here in CA !
Lies are not good, IMO. They are frequently required if one wants to stay employed, or sometimes if one wants to have smooth relationships. Sometimes the legal ramifications for telling the truth on forms is so twisted that folks just lie to keep daily business moving along. Perhaps we have too many rules and regulations in our society?

The good thing for me is my cats do not want me to lie, and we get along well. lol.

Originally posted by CestLaVie
Lies are not good, IMO. They are frequently required if one wants to stay employed . . .

My thoughts about replies I've received on other threads have led me to revisit this thread.

When I saw the above statement from the last post I was heartened to see someone else articulated what I'm thinking.

I have been distressed by the vitriol that is expressed by some on topics of alternative science and technology. Trailblazers are dismissed as "frauds" or "charlatans." Members rely on ridicule in their posts. It is so easy to dish out.

People that my intuition tells me are genuine are attacked. But I don't believe that my intuition is so different from others that we would react in such an opposite way. I think there's something else going on.

The something else is utter fear, I believe. People first and foremost have to make a living. If one's job involves a scientific underpinning that is invalid it is very understandable that the person holding that job is not going to want to hear about it and is going to resist acknowledging this. So people in this position lie to themselves to protect their livelihood. And to protect a lie, people resort to fallacies of reasoning, such as name-calling and ridicule.

I guess the solution is for people to perceive that their needs can be met in a better way - that there is an alternative.