29 January 2011

Truth Be Told


Is it me, or does it seem that the truth has become an archaic idea to people today? There are two trends that I find really troublesome. One is just plain annoying and the other is alarming. Maybe, it's because I am still jaded by the recent mid-term election that had some of the worst negative ads ever or maybe I am just become more attuned to it.

The first assault on truth is the out right lie. These are easy to spot and to refute. They are created to just put a complete untruth out there with the objective to make the subject of the untruth have to refute the lie and defend themselves. Proving the statement is a lie can be easy sometimes, but can also be very difficult. The difficult ones are lies that are based on what someone "said". This is the they said/I said scenario. I have been in this position recently. The good thing about this is that the person making up the lies is eventually found out and then everything they have been saying in the past becomes suspect.

The second assault, is the use of a truth in a lie. It has become very easy to take a part of some truth and turn it into a lie. This adds a bit of credibility to the lie, making it harder to refute. Many example are taking a statement or action out of context. Someone may they didn't like a specific dish they had a restaurant. This can be turned around that the person hates the restaurant. This is a pretty benign example, but you can definitely see how much bigger, more damaging lies can be created (see many of the attack ads from the last election as an example).

Finally, a rant on something that just scares and baffles me at the same time. I call it Lying Just To Lie (LJTL). Ok, I made up that acronym. Anyway, this is when people lie for no reason (although there are very few good reasons to lie). Lying has become so common place for people like this, that it rolls off their tongues without a thought. There's no shame in it for them. No feeling of guilt or remorse. That is what scares me.

I had instilled in me by my Grandmother, one of the most honest people I have even known, that you just don't lie. You tell the truth because it is right. No other reason was necessary. When she caught any of her grandchildren lying, you could tell it hurt her. And that in turn, hurt us back.
Let me make my last remarks and then I will step down from my soap box. No matter what faith, nationality, race, age, etc. you are, truth transcends all of that. To be truthful is really human nature.