A life in lies

I have long, as in long-in-the-tooth, tried to determine changes in the American society over several decades of observing. Today’s topic about is about one of them, lies and liars.  First, technology dominates the world scene, but reliance on knowledge has been diminished by instantly recovered resources. “Let’s look it up on the WIKI,” is a statement we often hear and rely upon.  Me too. So many say “I’ll look it up if I need it,” not understanding if they don’t know (of) it, they will not know to look it up.  Many machines dominate our world, most of which we cannot understand.  Repair your TV?  Impossible.  This skill was lost nearly 50 years ago.  However, not technological in any way is a rarely mentioned advent of all large civilizations, is that of large numbers and anonymity and loss of community. Anonymity allows countless outrages against us – from terror to thievery, and even to perversion.  Indeed, anonymity allows internal terrorists to breed unnoticed until it too late.

Lies, technology, and anonymity loom large in our world.

The first is in discourse, the second in daily operations, and the third on (in)visibility. All are critical. Today we examine only the lies and liars, most dangerous factors in our world.  They allow deceit, deception, deflection, and distraction. They create diversion, distrust, division, and demonization.   In politics, they embody demagoguery. 

We note the exponential rise of lies and stupid ones at that.  At one time, public lies were limited by believability, but we have now in this nation the abandonment of shame, guilt, and ridicule.  Lies have become a viable technique, with the perpetrators understanding that non-verifiability implies the lie cannot be called – even on an intuitive basis.  And the smoking gun to prove a lie must at minimum appear in an indisputable document.  Common sense is disallowed.  Shame no longer exists, as we see in William Bennett’s, The Death of Outrage. 

Lies as routine in communication are rampant.

Another observation of note is generational.  We now witness the second, and even third generation of liars are on the playing field of American discourse.  These means our newest liars were raised by parents who themselves were liars, and they in turn by their parents.  

Lies: Epidemic or endemic? A 21^st-century question.

The newer generation (of liars) is much under 50%, , most being honest,ut it seems to have achieved a criticality in numbers. When I began my teaching career, students would lie about why they didn’t make an exam or hand in homework or something. They would appeal on the basis of caring, nervousness, sometimes even being convincing.  Now they claim they overslept (for an 11AM exam?), had car problems (lots), forgot (many), suffered the rejection by a friend (some), or anything at all.  (You have to prove it wrong is what’s implied. Otherwise, you must accept it.*) They believe that showing up for class merits a grade of “C” at least.  They cheat whenever possible, and without compunction.  The grade has the value, the learning notwithstanding.  In the teaching world, lies are so rampant that students tend to lie even if they don’t need to. 

Over 15 years of  teaching adult students for an online degree,  I heard similar excuses (i.e. lies) for under performance really no different or better than I had heard in previous years from undergrads.  Amazed was I.  No progression at all.  Little originality.   The chemistry of lies advanced not a bit with years. 

A teaching story.  One particular student in my business calculus class some years ago remains legendary. Randy got an “F,” but was it deserved? Good question.  Lance not only scored the lowest class grade on every test (four of them), but he cheated.  How?  He aligned himself with two other students to sit on either side during an exam. He neglected to consider these two students were among the worst in the class.  So, while he cheated from them, they cheated from him.  What an alliance!  Of course, I gave them no exam-time cognizance, letting then cheat away.  Months later, the big lie emerged when Randy asked me to change his grade because he wanted to be a campus student advisor to incoming students.  Neat – and original. Naturally, and I checked, he had been put on suspension for low grades.  Not just for calculus class but all!
Liars, when identified, tend to lose all credibility, not just to the lie at hand but to everything. At an institutional level, though, lies have both optimistic and pessimistic variations, but who can predict or even conjecture how or why?

Lies - optimistic. So much has been written about the continual barrage of lies we face from advertising in politics. A silver lining, if you want to call it that, exists to all this.  It makes people calloused and hardened to any and every statement.  People are forced to think about what to believe. The new normal of total lies has strengthened the mind of the populace to discern false promises.  I think - or like to hope.

Lies - pessimistic. So much has been written about the continual barrage of lies we face from advertising in politics.  A natural conclusion is the citizenry will become so cynical they will believe nothing whatever.  “No news is good news,” so goes the old saying.  It may replaced by, “All news is no news.”   The only news report accepted is the one you wanted to hear.  Confidence in reports will be limited to topics without a shadow of political interpretation (e.g., It rained in New York today).  With the equivocation of morality, all news becomes justified, particularly when the lie could be true (i.e. political truths). See, The Truth About Truth at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141204125055-53504664-the-truth-about-truth?trk=pulse_spock-articles

Either version of the lie betrays the more dangerous possibility, that the use of lies has become a life process.  Without any need to be truthful, with no absolutes, and with no principles, lies will explode into another currency of living.  Lies become truth if only you’re sincere.

Example. A litmus test for identifying a liar rests with explanations.  Suppose a tragedy occurs to Party A, such as a firebombing.  While almost all renounce this, the liar in Party B (e.g. the liars) will suggest it was perpetrated by Party A to discredit Party B.  This could be so, but when it is the first thing mentioned, it betrays the basic instinct that the entire affair must be a lie from the start.  

The one often accuses another of the same sins they themselves may commit.

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Fundamentally, and this our theme on what’s new, we live in a swamp of lies embedded with brigades of liars.  And that’s no lie.

*I have found a slick solution to this no-show exam problem.  I will accept the excuse and offer to give a make-up.  Let me know when you want it.  Think it over.  Take your time, I tell them, knowing the good student who actually did prepare wants the make-up right away.  The poorer student with the silly lie can put it off and does, sometimes for weeks.  They get the expected grade because they don’t prepare for the make-up any more than they did for the original exam.  Often, I give the original exam as the make-up.  Outcome is the same.