On Lies

   

No one comes into life knowing how to lie, or to tell the truth either, for that matter. These are learned states of mind and, while we become prone to lying or truth telling alternately during the day, most of us will fall more fully into one category or the other. Some of us will feel uncomfortable when we choose to lie, but for others, the lie comes so easily to their lips they barely notice it.

Why we lie...

The June 2017 issue of the National Geographic featured a piece on why we lie. There were several reasons stated that we can all recognize. The biggest was to cover mistakes or personal transgressions. Also economic advantage was a reason, along with trying to escape or evade something or gain personal advantage. The article said that children lie to test their independence, and I know that some lie to get out from under a situation without batting an eye. One psychologist thought it was easier to tell the truth because lying took a “sharp, flexible mind.” Maybe so, but it can be damn hard to be truthful when there are some hard things to say that may prove difficult to hear!

All liars get discovered...

At the end of the day truth telling may be taken for granted most of the time, and hopefully it should be. Practiced liars generally upset the flow of harmonious living by trying to arrange things to satisfy themselves, often at the expense of others. The thing is, all liars eventually get discovered, the unskilled very quickly, the more expert over time.

A terrible price...

The real trouble is that the consummate liar pays a terrible price eventually. Even disregarding the broken situations littering his life, the time will come when no one will ever trust anything he says or does which will make him disregarded and avoided whenever possible. Could anything get much worse?