One can generally tell the popularity of a thing by the number of names it is known by. Lying goes by many names intended to make the manure smell less odious; exaggeration, prevarication, fibbing, distortion, mis-remembering, selective truth, conditional truth, kitman, fabricate, forswear, perjure, equivocate, fudge, palter, beguile, deceive, delude, dupe, fool, hoax, hoodwink, take in, snow, trick, defame, libel, slander, traduce, falsify, misreport, misrepresent, misstate, distort, dissemble, dissimulate, misguide, misinform, mislead and so on.
All have one thing in common: the liar believes he has something to gain and little to lose. He sees no gain to be had by not lying, and much to be gained by not telling the truth. He believes he is so beguiling that you will not even think of challenging the lie.
Lying has become so pervasive in our culture that we have come to accept it as just another language tool to get what we want, or avoid what we don’t. There is no profit in truth.
We learn this at an early age. Bill Cosby did a very funny comedy bit about a toddler who took a cookie he wasn't supposed to. When caught, the toddler comes up with all kinds of excuses for why he did what he did. Now where did the toddler learn to lie? Certainly most parents don’t teach their children to lie. But children are smarter than we normally give them credit for. Cookies taste good but taking your medicine doesn’t.
Unfortunately this knowledge isn’t forgotten as we grow up. What teenager hasn’t made up a story of why he/she stayed out so late, or where they were, or how dad’s car got dented? Why? To avoid punishment. A different kind of profit.
Certainly some small fibs are forgivable:
“Did you enjoy my home-made boiled kiwi pie?”
“Wow, I thought it was store-bought.”
Or
“Does this dress make my butt look bigger?”
“Butt? What butt.”
Certainly some small fibs are forgivable:
“Did you enjoy my home-made boiled kiwi pie?”
“Wow, I thought it was store-bought.”
Or
“Does this dress make my butt look bigger?”
“Butt? What butt.”
Some lies are whoppers. When Bernie Madoff admitted that his investment firm was "just one big lie," it was an understatement. In 2008, he confessed to having conned about $50 billion from investors who trusted him with their savings.
Brian Williams’ fibs are really quite sad and harmless compared to ex-NYT contributor, Jayson Blair, who plagiarized and fabricated sources, events and scenes, in almost half of all his considerable amount of work submitted to the NYTimes.
According to a well-credentialed investigator, much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies for Big Pharma is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. Euphemisms for lying. So why are doctors still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice? There is no profit in truth. Medical research is “A noble endeavor, but it’s also a low-yield endeavor,” a respected medical researcher says. “...Only a very small percentage of medical research is ever likely to lead to major improvements in clinical outcomes and quality of life. We should be very comfortable with that fact.” Comfortable with facts based on lies?
Don’t get me started on so-called religious preachers. The list of their lies is longer than a boring Sunday sermon.
Many in academia call their propaganda “education.”
Pollsters and researchers quickly learn to phrase their questions in such a way that they skew the replies.
After Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, scientists scrambled to find so-called "missing links" to fill the gaps on the timeline of human evolution. When archaeologist Charles Dawson unearthed the Piltdown Man, what he really found was one of the biggest hoaxes in history.
Hucksters: In the early 20th century, scholars were squabbling about whether the renowned artist Vermeer had painted a series of works depicting biblical scenes. A contemporary artist named Van Meegeren, who felt he was under-appreciated, pounced on this opportunity and set to work carefully forging one such disputed work, "The Disciples at Emmaus." With tireless attention to detail, he faked the cracks and aged hardness of a centuries-old painting. He intentionally played on the confirmation bias of critics who wanted to believe that Vermeer painted these scenes. It worked: experts hailed the painting as authentic, and Van Meegeren made out like a bandit producing and selling more fake Vermeers. Greed apparently overcame his desire for praise, as he decided not to out himself.
Some lies are multi-layered, involving many conspiring and colluding to dupe the public for gain. Take the idea of global warming. Scientists, politicians, hucksters and the media agree it’s a dire problem. The concept helps each advance his own agenda. Nations tax corporations and individuals for it. Scientists get grants. Politicians get pork. Hucksters make huge profits, and the media advances its leftist agenda. There is no profit in truth.
Scandal in sports? Bury it if you can. Otherwise it will hurt ticket and merchandise sales, and player testimonial fees.
Now if someone tells you he is not lying, well... odds are... he is lying. The point of this whole missive is to make you think twice about anything you are told, or hear in the news, or read on the net. Be skeptical. Know when you are being lied to. If the person stands to gain from it... you are most likely being lied to. If you know it’s a lie and repeat or in some other way support it, you are colluding. If you believe the lie and don’t know it’s a lie, you are being suckered. Think about it; you are better off being a skeptic than a sucker or a fool.
David Hannum (a competitor of fellow huckster P.T. Barnum) is the gent who actually said: “There's a sucker born every minute.”
