Lying world-Part 2

O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive -Sir Walter Scott, Marmion. 

In my previous post, I wrote how more and more lies makes a liar insensitive to the lies. Recently, I was having an argument with a friend who was trying to convince me that lying (even if deceptive) should not be considered as “bad”. So before I move further to the characteristics of a pathological liar, let me bring out few points in this post that why in my opinion resorting to lies just because its easy, is not right and should not be accepted as normal.

Human mind is conditioned to tell the truth- The first natural human instinct is to speak truth. Lying does not come naturally to the mind, unless we have trained it to lie. Lying is not natural, its work, an effort, a special task for the brain. Brain has to process the information, accumulate the facts, assess the situation, understand the other person intellect, go back to the web of memories to be in conformity with other lies, form more lies to protect the credibility of the previous lies …Gosh, we are talking a hell lot of work here. Obviously, this exercise makes human brain highly effective in lying and alert, yet tired, hence declining a liar’s ability to perform well in other spheres of life.

Lie is a form of deception. All lies are deceptive, yet a deception may not be a lie

Against Humanity-Lies are obviously against the very principle of humanity. Lies most of the time hurt the person who is lied to. When a liar decides to lie, he takes away the following fundamental rights of the person being lied to;

1. They are deprived of the true information and force them to live in a false bubble
2. It takes their right to make an informed choice, thus making them take a course of action, which they might not have otherwise chosen
3. They may emotionally suffer as a result of the lie- lack of trust, depression, disconnect, losing self esteem and anger are often found in the people suffering from betrayal and lies.

Revenge- What if the person lied to and betrayed decides to take a revenge?  The deeper is the wound of betrayal, the dangerous can be the form of revenge. What will we do then? Preach forgiveness. If lying can be justified, surely, revenge too. It is a dangerous game, you are playing there.

Imagine a lying world- How do you feel being lied to by everyone and lying to everyone? Imagine a world where people generally don’t tell the truth and lying is a socially accepted norm. No one could be trusted, nothing you hear can be trusted and nothing you read can be trusted.  Lying itself will not be of much use then, because everyone is doing it.

As I discussed in my previous post, not all lies are bad. But any lie intending to deceive the other person or taking their right to make an informed choice is bad.