Is It OK to Lie?

Faithful followers of this blog (all four of you) will note that I have not written for a while.  Partly I've been very, very busy.  Partly I was overwhelmed by a veritable tidal wave of lies and outright propaganda in the news that appeared to drown out my still, small voice of reason. On the one hand, Acorn CEO Bertha Lewis called the Tea Party a "bowel movement" and a return to segregation and McCarthyism at a meeting of the Young Democratic Socialists.  On the other Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, insisted at a congressional hearing that they did nothing wrong by packaging bad mortgages as a financial derivative, rating the quality way too highly, and selling it to their investors while betting against it in their own portfolios.  It was only the wonderfully supportive thoughts and opinions of a longtime friend that convinced me to trudge onward against the tsunami and at least carry my message to those extreme few who are still interested in using their minds and not just their "hearts".

So, is lying OK?  Before you answer "no, of course not", consider whether public statements of the type mentioned above have ever touched an emotional chord in you and caused you a rush of guilty pleasure - even though you should have known they were preposterous.  (If you weren't going to answer "of course not", please stop reading and return to your television show, copy of USA Today, porn surfing, or whatever other highly inspirational activity really appeals to you).

The problem, as I mention often, is that emotions are easier and more fun than rational thought and much easier to prey upon by public figures with an agenda.  If you approve or accept the ones that appeal to you, you have no right to object to the ones from the other side.  Worse, you are helping to perpetuate a societal norm that is causing ever greater polarization in our country and making it impossible to accomplish any real good.  We can't have (and generally no longer do have) anything that qualifies as a "discussion" in our public arena because you can't discuss emotions - they only belong to the individual.  Certainly never in our political arena where winning a "victory" for your party comes before any sort of benefit to the country as a whole.  And never in the media, where facts and even whole stories are omitted if they would be damaging to the point of view of the reporters or media outlet.  And by the way, omission of significant facts that would alter the perception of a situation DOES qualify as lying because the purpose of doing so is to deceive someone into believing in something that is already known to not be entirely true.

The only way to not buy into this whole scheme is to try to get real facts and form an objective opinion on your own (rememember - my religion is objectivity).  You CANNOT do this by simply listening to the information sources that you agree with and make you feel happy.  I listen to both NPR and Fox Talk Radio pretty much every day.  Add a little uncommon sense and read between the lines and you can generally tell what is really going on and who is trying to sell you what.  Give it a try, stretch your comfort zone, keep an open mind, and see what you might learn!

By the way - does your opinion matter?  More than you can possibly know.  Stay tuned.