Birthers. Obama born in Kenya. A plot to kill old people.
That private enterprise is always more efficient that government.
That we have the best health care system in the world.
Insurance companies are interested in our health more
than they are interested in profits. The more guns we carry,
the safer we are, especially if the President is Black.
Lies. Just lies.
We all know people who seem unable not to lie.
If they tell us about the fish they almost caught,
it becomes larger than the whale that chewed Jonah.
They cannot say, "I forgot" or "I overslept" or
"I really don't want to!" They have to lie.
They lie about everything, even little unimportant things.
Lying becomes a way of life. If they are our friends,
and if we like them, anyway, we just concede they are lying,
and pretend we do not know that they have corrupted themselves.
It is especially painful when we hear our elected representatives
lie about things. We watch them try not to say that Barack Obama
was born in Hawaii, or that they do not want a change in the health care
system, that they will do almost anything to preserve their sources
of income, or that they are pandering to their brainless constituents.
It is so painful, so shameful, to listen to the lies, and to know
that the lying really works, keeps them in office, keeps the money
coming, and allows them to orchestrate their constituency.
Take the simplest example: that Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii.
I will not even insult thinking people with the evidence, once again.
But the fact is, if you say it, over and over, people will believe the lie.
Just say it, over and over! Watch the poll numbers climb!
The worst part of habitual lying is that the liars come to believe them.
Some people cannot even hear themselves shade every story,
every retelling of an event, every reason for doing anything,
without lying. The rest of us hear it. We pretend we don't.
Perfect truth-telling is not possible, and not even desirable.
Telling the truth all of the time can be terribly cruel: "Yes, you are ugly!"
Sometimes we fudge the truth to protect people from unnecessary harm.
But when we fudge the truth to protect ourselves from the truth,
then we become, not kind fudgers, but deliberate liars.
Habitual liars. Hopeless liars. Despicable liars. Liars.
We all lie. The differences between some of us is that some of us
try to lie as little as possible, to tell the truth as much as possible,
to take the chance that telling the truth will be best in the long run,
and that some of us are quick to lie, find it easy to lie, because
telling the truth will make us look not quite as nice as we wish we were.
Too many politicians pander. Lie. It is easier then explaining the truth.
After a while, lying is simply what they find easy to do.
They almost forget what the honest answers are; that they are painful.
I have come to value the people who try to tell the truth, kindly,
as much as possible, especially when it reveals their own faults.
I trust them, because I know they are thinking about others,
and not just themselves. I have come to sadness, listening to people
who turn easily to trivial lies. I do not trust them, because I know
that are thinking mostly about themselves, and not about others.
If you are kind, you will not ask me to tell you which I am,
because I am not sure which of the two I am. But you already know.
And I will thank you not to tell me the whole truth, either.
but as much of it as you think I can take, and just a bit more.
With a little grief. A little kindness.
Especially if it hurts you to have to say it.
That private enterprise is always more efficient that government.
That we have the best health care system in the world.
Insurance companies are interested in our health more
than they are interested in profits. The more guns we carry,
the safer we are, especially if the President is Black.
Lies. Just lies.
We all know people who seem unable not to lie.
If they tell us about the fish they almost caught,
it becomes larger than the whale that chewed Jonah.
They cannot say, "I forgot" or "I overslept" or
"I really don't want to!" They have to lie.
They lie about everything, even little unimportant things.
Lying becomes a way of life. If they are our friends,
and if we like them, anyway, we just concede they are lying,
and pretend we do not know that they have corrupted themselves.
It is especially painful when we hear our elected representatives
lie about things. We watch them try not to say that Barack Obama
was born in Hawaii, or that they do not want a change in the health care
system, that they will do almost anything to preserve their sources
of income, or that they are pandering to their brainless constituents.
It is so painful, so shameful, to listen to the lies, and to know
that the lying really works, keeps them in office, keeps the money
coming, and allows them to orchestrate their constituency.
Take the simplest example: that Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii.
I will not even insult thinking people with the evidence, once again.
But the fact is, if you say it, over and over, people will believe the lie.
Just say it, over and over! Watch the poll numbers climb!
The worst part of habitual lying is that the liars come to believe them.
Some people cannot even hear themselves shade every story,
every retelling of an event, every reason for doing anything,
without lying. The rest of us hear it. We pretend we don't.
Perfect truth-telling is not possible, and not even desirable.
Telling the truth all of the time can be terribly cruel: "Yes, you are ugly!"
Sometimes we fudge the truth to protect people from unnecessary harm.
But when we fudge the truth to protect ourselves from the truth,
then we become, not kind fudgers, but deliberate liars.
Habitual liars. Hopeless liars. Despicable liars. Liars.
We all lie. The differences between some of us is that some of us
try to lie as little as possible, to tell the truth as much as possible,
to take the chance that telling the truth will be best in the long run,
and that some of us are quick to lie, find it easy to lie, because
telling the truth will make us look not quite as nice as we wish we were.
Too many politicians pander. Lie. It is easier then explaining the truth.
After a while, lying is simply what they find easy to do.
They almost forget what the honest answers are; that they are painful.
I have come to value the people who try to tell the truth, kindly,
as much as possible, especially when it reveals their own faults.
I trust them, because I know they are thinking about others,
and not just themselves. I have come to sadness, listening to people
who turn easily to trivial lies. I do not trust them, because I know
that are thinking mostly about themselves, and not about others.
If you are kind, you will not ask me to tell you which I am,
because I am not sure which of the two I am. But you already know.
And I will thank you not to tell me the whole truth, either.
but as much of it as you think I can take, and just a bit more.
With a little grief. A little kindness.
Especially if it hurts you to have to say it.
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