The Truth and The Lie

I wanted to share this with you guys, hoping you’d like it as much as I did when I first read it. Although, I dont necessarily believe “The Truth” should be shameful. “The Truth” is naked because she has nothing to hide, hence, shouldn’t be ashamed. Or perhaps she was ashamed because she got tricked by “The Lie.” Read it and you will understand more of what I mean:

According to a 19th century legend, the Truth and the Lie meet one day. The Lie says to the Truth: “It’s a marvellous day today”! The Truth looks up to the skies and sighs, for the day was really beautiful. They spend a lot of time together, ultimately arriving beside a well. The Lie tells the Truth: “The water is very nice, let’s take a bath together!” The Truth, once again suspicious, tests the water and discovers that it indeed is very nice. They undress and start bathing. Suddenly, the Lie comes out of the water, puts on the clothes of the Truth and runs away. The furious Truth comes out of the well and runs everywhere to find the Lie and to get her clothes back. The World, seeing the Truth naked, turns its gaze away, with contempt and rage.

The poor Truth returns to the well and disappears forever, hiding therein, its shame. Since then, the Lie travels around the world, dressed as the Truth, satisfying the needs of society, because, the World, in any case, harbours no wish at all to meet the naked Truth.

The world famous painting- “The Truth coming out of the well” Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1896.

View more in Poetry and Short Stories

World full of liars

Everyone babbles about the deceptions of the government, the higher ups. Claiming they don’t tell us the full truth about a project in order to keep us in the dark. Maybe a medical experiment, environmental development, bio testing, or proposed war. They’re lying about covid too right? And the earth being round? These are big lies so our little lies in comparison which we live out daily are idly ignored. We are all liars.

Scholars say ‘Lying is an unavoidable part of human nature.’ But does that make is ethically okay?

Lies are not always false info and not always malicious, it is simply giving info we believe to be untrue, intending to deceive or mislead a person. Lying benefits the liar and puts the person being lied to in a difficult, unfair position. They can not make a informed, free decision because they have false info to go off. They are deprived of control of the situation. Usually for selfish reasons in order to benefit the liar.

Then some people say lying is okay as long as it benefits everyone involved. People may ask themselves “would telling the truth or telling a lie bring about the better consequences in this situation?” Basing their decision off that, believing sometimes that lying is the “right” thing to do. Ethicists would argue that, even if lying has better consequences, it is still morally wrong.

Consequentialis (Utilarians) assess right and wrong by looking at possible consequences. They believe that if lying brings a better result, it is okay to lie. But if a lie may bring a bad result, it’s wrong to lie. Which is impractical because it asks the person to work out in advance the possible consequences, to balance the good vs. bad. Consequences are hard to predict ahead of time and for whom is it good or bad? What system should be used to measure that?

Then we have Deontologists (greek word deon, meaning duty) who base moral thinking on general universal laws. An act is either right or wrong regardless of whether it produces good or bad consequences. Deontologists don’t always agree on how we arrive at ‘moral laws’ or what they even are but there is one generally accepted moral law “do not tell lies.” If it’s the law, than lying is always wrong. Then you have those people who say “lying is always wrong except when there is a good reason. That’s not always then is it?

Virtue Ethics looks at what good (virtuous) people do. Honesty is a virtue so lying is wrong. They contradict themselves though in the sense that they may catch themselves lying because of another virtue, such as compassion.

Religious people say lying is bad because it misuses the God given gift of communication. We are unable to accurately share thoughts if we are lying so it is a sin.

History of deception

The big thing that separates us from the animal kingdom isn’t our ability to use tools or reason, but telling lies and human capacity for self-deception. We are the most masterful deceivers on the planet. Our ability to deceive goes way back:

”Around 120,000 B.C., there is evidence that humans were capable of self-deception in the form of religious ritual. The appearance in the fossil record of burials, burial goods and, later, cave art are the first evidence of the ability of humans to deceive themselves and to create culturally determined perceptions of nature.

”Deception is socially adaptive for humans. It might also be adaptive to be able to deceive oneself. I don’t think animals have a filter through which they see the world, but it is almost a necessity for humans.” Says Robert Sussman, an ethicist.

Why lie?

Why is it that is a necessity to lie? People for some reason believe, in spite of the turmoil that always comes with it, that lying makes things easier at the time. At the time is key because the truth always comes out, and things get a lot more difficult than they would have been if you hadn’t lied in the first place.

In my personal opinion, it makes nothing easier guys. You start with one lie which you have to keep up with, eventually telling another and another to the point where it’s hard to keep track of. It’s hard to remember what you told who, and eventually you slip up and say the wrong thing. Something as simple as stating something one way to a person and stating it a different way to another, they communicate and can read into your lies. The constant guilt and looking over your shoulder isnt worth it. You may get an immediate relief from hiding some sort of truth from someone that benefits you, but that relief is quickly shifted. The lie stays in the back of your mind.

Of course there are little white lies that people usually tell out of compassion for the other person. For example your friend is too nervous to ask their crush out and asks you to get an idea of how they feel about them. Your friend’s crush says something offensive about them and shuts them right down. Do you make up a white to spare their feelings by telling them their crush is interested in someone else, or maybe too busy to date right now, or do you tell them the truth?

Sometimes a little white lie really isnt hurting anyone but it also can block someone from a truth they probably should know. Let’s say for example your friends crush said they weren’t interested because of the poor hygiene of your friend. If you now know this may be a reason why your friend is rejected a lot, as a good friend it would be the right thing to tell them. You don’t even have to say who it came from but instead subtly bring it up on your own. It makes the little white lie a little more ethical.

Some people are natural liars, some aren’t

I remember when I was about 10, my mom, two sisters and I went to my Aunts house in Toronto for a little get together/dinner party. I was a kid and I had no clue what it was, but my mom said she had to go pick up something in town. We live in Mississauga so I guess my mom decided until we went to my Aunts to pick up whatever it was she had to pick up.

My mom asked me if I wanted to come for the trip with her. I had no clue why she had asked me instead of my sisters, only thing I can think of was I was the awkward, shy one who always wanted to by my moms side because she spoke for me and I never had to say much. So maybe she was concerned I’d be nervous and out of place while she was gone? I don’t know, either way I went with her and for some reason we took the street car instead of driving. We went to a market, she picked up some home baked good she said you could only get there in Toronto. She chatted with an old friend for a bit then we were headed back to my Aunts.

On the way back my mom told me she didnt like my aunts cooking so, she wanted to stop for some food and that was the main reason she wanted to go out. But she told me she didnt want my Aunt to know she doesn’t like her cooking, and she definitely doesnt want her to know that we left the house in search of better food than hers, so my mom told me we we’re going to tell a little white lie.

She bought us both some jerk chicken, oxtail and rice and we shoveled it down so quick. She told me we we’re going to tell them we were stuck in traffic, and I couldnt tell anyone, not even my sisters. I hated lying and I felt like I had a big responsibility on my back. I didnt want to let my mom down but at the same time I felt so guilty lying. I held back for like an hour I think before I told my sisters. They kept it a secret from my mom that they knew because they knew I wasnt trying to do wrong by going against my mother. Even if they did tell my mom, she wouldnt be mad at me for blabbing, she just probably wouldnt share anything secret with me again.

My mom genuinely wasn’t trying to hurt anyone and it’s okay not to like everyone’s cooking but if she knew this she should have planned ahead of time so she didn’t put herself in a position where she had to lie. If she had filled up on food ahead of time she would be okay going without once she got there. I guess she would have still lied when my Aunt asked her why she wasn’t eat much or at all. She would have to make an excuse up. Either way, there could have been better ways to deal with the situation.

Know the difference

Sometimes a lie is harmless, sometimes it could be detrimental, it’s all about knowing the difference. Inspect your conscious and see if the lie is justified or if it is solely benefitting you. Maybe ask other people with ethical knowledge about how they feel about the specific situation. Think of future consequences and weigh the pros in cons.

A person who speaks the truth has positive energy inside him. That person gets along with everyone and is respected by people because they do not fear losing credibility, or being the bad guy and their actions and poise show that confidence. But the person who lies, their thinking is negative, overcrowded with worry and most likely will attract the same kind of people.

Like I said, in my personal opinion lying rarely benefits anyone and I think if we can refrain from it, we should. The truth hurts sometimes but needs to be told. And I will always whole heartedly believe the truth always comes out. Which only makes it harder for you to gain trust or establish rapport with that person again. Unless of course like in my example: if you are lying to your friend about why their crush doesnt want to date them, (bad hygeine) but then subtly telling them in a different way. Your friend will most likely never find out about the little white lie, hurting no one in the end. Still, I genuinely will always believe that honesty is the best policy. I only wish more people thought the same way but the reality of it is, it seems to me like we living in a world full of liars.

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