I have always had a hard time lying. It really unsettles me. For me personally, it makes me feel unsafe. I don’t shy away from lying because I am any more noble or altruistic (does altruism actually exist?) than anyone else. For the same reason that I am proactively nice to people more easily when I am feeling down than when feeling more chipper (like today!), it is because it helps me, and if it helps others in the process then that is just gravy. I offer that embracing a path of honesty can often be a lonely challenging walk.
But I do think that people are basically good. How could these two seemingly mutually exclusive things co-exist? I would argue it is because “good things” tend to be fragile whereas “mean things” tend to be wrapped in barbed wire. Though there are many more basically “good” people than “bad” people in the world, the bad things and actions and if you will, individuals do more damage per unit whatever than the good things. Think of it as a global score card, bad things hurt like 6.47 units worth (roughly four tau for those math nerds out there) and good things help like 3.14 units worth (pi is of course good). But fortunately, there are many more 3.14s out there than the buzz-kill 6.47s.
But why would so many societies in essence reward lying? After all, we built society! I’m not too knowledgeable about this, but it seems that it is because we are prone to fear and greed and other less helpful tendencies. I think we would all basically be “good” if we did not fear missing out on our fair share. I think we have weapons and wars and speed limits enforced by police that we hire (yet try to evade using Google maps) because we know we are weak at times. We don’t just fear the criminals, we fear that we too might become the criminal if left to our own devices.
I do realize that it is impractical to tell the truth 100% of the time. It would require an infinite amount of time to get anything done and realistically we would likely have some other equally difficult situation that we then created. But, don’t you wish that politicians told the truth, or that airline ticket pricing was fair and transparent? Apparently not, or we would not keep voting in these systems with our dollars and ballots. Why is congresses approval rating so abysmal? Is it really measuring their honesty or ours? Aren’t we all just searching for that magic pill that replaces exercise or integrity? Don’t we expect at this point that all problems (childhood obesity, school shootings, national debt, income inequality, etc…) can and should be solved painlessly with virtually no effort on our part? Aren’t we just looking for the fountain of youth still after all these centuries?
Stop. Just stop. Decide that for the rest of the day you will be honest. I am actually going to try this; we will see how my unsuspecting family responds! There is no way to build a better world than to just start right now and build it. I have honestly felt that if I am in a really good mood or a really compassionate mood I can “cast a gossamer field of peace” around me. When my thin little bubble of love bumps into dishonesty or impatience or fear it sort of knocks it down a few pegs. If I can start out “high enough” I can go the whole day literally spreading happiness, and I even get happier! It is like a perpetual motion machine (which I do remember violates the laws of thermodynamics, but that’s okay). I visualize life this way, we all move through it spreading love or unlove, each day, each step. And like gas molecules (OK, I did study chemical engineering after all) bumping into each other they exchange energy and affect each other.
The way to “fix” the environment or get politicians to tell us the truth is for US to start doing this right now. We are society. Tonight’s dinner might lead to a whole new world. Taco time!
