Lies.
Is it really that bad to lie?
What constitutes a lie anyhow? If I asked a question and one did not answer, would it still be a lie? You did not tell me the truth, is it therefore a lie? Is a lie knowing the answer and not saying it? Is it called a lie if you only say partial truth and don't specify on the rest well knowing?
A person who is completely silent can be a liar, can they not?
Does it depend on the guilt one has? It can't be that, for what if a compulsive liar feels no guilt for their lie? Is it still not a lie? Maybe it's, from a normal standpoint, the amount of guilt a moral person would have for this lie under the circumstances and knowledge had when the "lie" was made. (For instance, if I as a child had said that I liked marshmallow peeps, but later on despised them, it would not be a lie, only a misconception.) But that is nearly impossible to gauge.
Should an ignorant person be chastised for lies when they are only overconfident and know no better? If they should be then the human race is a group of horrible compulsive liars. Is there even any religious group who specifically recognizes lying as a sin? I'm not sure, someone help me out with your worldly knowledge.
Personally, I think I have cut down on lying. I do not see reason on most occasions to lie. I think I rarely just "lie for the heck of it". Who lies like that? Weirdos that's who. If I lie, it's to keep myself out of trouble (trouble caused by myself or trouble directed towards myself.) Sometimes I lie to myself. That one is kind tricky, but it can be done. Sometimes I lie to help out a friend in defense to or from authority or peers. Sometimes I lie for my own major convenience in relation to the other side's nonexistent inconvenience. ("Did you turn in your paperwork to the office?" "Yes.") I lie in the sense that sometimes I do not tell the whole truth to people I am talking to when they think I am spilling my guts to them. So, said in this way it sounds like I lie a lot. But the thing is that I do not consider them lies. I consider them living. What is life if you only state true facts and few opinions? All opinions are lies in some way, how could they be true if only so many people agree? How is "truth" defined anyway? Is there a truth fairy? (lol I'm sure it's been done don't praise me) I rarely ever state facts frankly, everything that spews out of my mouth is rhetorical or theoretical questions and opinions.
So yes, I am a compulsive liar. And I love it. Do I feel pride? guilt? Yes, yes.
3 comments:
i thought about the concept of lying recently and it occured to me that sometimes lying isn't so much about deceiving people as much as it is about freedom from the truth. or just freedom in general.
we're obliged to so many things: gravity, being nice to people, not being "cliche", we can't be "naive", etc. but what if we were? what if we were CLICHE and NAIVE just for the sake of rebelling, just for the sake of taking back something that's ours? it's not up to other people to decide whether it's okay for me to be naive--it's MY choice. i feel the same way about lying.
society tells me i have to tell the truth, but in the end i'm just taking back one of my freedoms by lying--the freedom to be able to choose to live my life any way i want and to say anything i want.
if that makes sense at all.
i followed it. interesting counterpoint. and it reminds me of a Buddhist saying (or did I just google "Buddhist sayings" so that i could sound smart? you'll never know will you?)
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. -Buddha
Bizarrely enough, lying doesn't seem to be considered a sin in many moral systems. If we tell someone that their outfit is delightful or that their dog is well-behaved, most people wouldn't be horrified if the sentiment were less than genuine.
The sin aspect of lying comes in when it is used to cover up a legitimate sin: -I did not steal the cookie from the cookie jar! Yes you did! Prove it!- Or sometimes it becomes a sin when it is used to harm someone's reputation: I saw Moderately Entertaining in the vicinity of the cookie jar on the night of October 5th. She was wearing a gray ski jacket; and I saw her extract a ziplock bag and some pastry tongs from the left breast-pocket.
Lying eventually destroys community. If you can't rely on the information that someone gives you as being accurate, you stop talking to that person.
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