anyone ever see the movie the invention of lying? If you haven't it's basically about a society of people that never ever lie. However, eventually one person discovers the awesome power of lying. The best part about one person in the world lying when everyone else tells the truth is that everyone believes you. At one point in the movie this guy goes to the bank and even though he has absolutely no money in his account he tells them he has 300 dollars and instantly its there. Anyways this is not the basis of my newest blog post although it is somewhat related. Has anyone ever thought of what it would take to change the culture of america? To wipe out one ideal everyone abides by and completely change it? If it was even possible?
Think about it, what if tomorrow the government made a new law that made everyone have to tell the truth all the time. Do you think people would actually listen to it? Probably not, unless we had some weird brain implants that made it so the government could hear our every word and thoughts, oh wait thats the cell phone... just kidding. Anyway, lying is so embedded into american culture i think it would be nearly impossible to make people stop doing it altogether. Even things that we dont really consider lies, like telling someone they look great in an outfit when really they look like a wrapped sausage, would be deemed illegal. But if you think about it these lies are really considered social norms and used as methods of politeness. So if you tell your wrapped sausage friend whats on your mind thats considered rude and improper, but lying is technically frowned down upon as well. Its a very convoluted system we run around here. But to program that out of peoples brains seems nearly impossible. It would take generations upon generations just for people to forget that they ever lied in the first place. And then there might always be that one person who discovered the beauty of lying again that would mess up the whole system once more.
I think about this all the time. I think that society has taken the easy way out and that is to lie about things. Which then of course you must lie and lie to keep up with your first lie. It is a never ending circle. To say you have never lied about something is a lie. When I was younger I always lied. I figured it was the easiest way to get what I wanted. Now that I am older I realize how much lying only hurts me in the end. I try to be as truthful as possible about everything. Sometimes I do not tell the whole truth. Because I think it helps me, and it does not hurt other people. But in the end it only hurts others more. I always will think honesty is the best policy. Like you said honesty and lying can both hurt people in the end. But I would rather be honesty then give you a false sense of something.
ReplyDeleteI think lying has its ups and downs. I believe when its used correctly its not always bad. i just never think its good. Its great to be used as a way to avoid immediatly hurting someone's feelings but, it's mostly just used to harm. American politics seemed to be built off of them. But we whouldn't be who we are without lying either.
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