Lying: The new way of communicating in America
Bold-faced lies? Bald-faced lies? Bare-faced lies? When did it become OK to lie? And when did lies become the truth and truth become so obfuscated that differentiation between truth and lies blurred so significantly we simply chose the lie we liked the best or felt most comfortable embracing? These lies, lies that are told without any concern for their ethical implications and in complete disregard for those who might be negatively impacted, have become the norm. Black is white, blue is red, and upside down is right-side-up. Allegations are not facts.
When I was first exposed to a pathological liar, it was hard for me to understand what I was hearing or seeing. This young teacher would tell someone something that we both knew to be a complete fabrication. Then I would hear him repeat that same lie a second time, and by the third time it was no longer a lie in his mind. He absolutely had convinced himself that he was telling the truth. So, maybe there should be some type of litmus test for our politicians to at least determine if they are pathological.
When I first got into marketing, it was very clear to me that lying was not the answer because you would most surely be called out for telling an outright lie to promote something. There were always detail people waiting in the wings to correct or discipline you if you even unknowingly misrepresented a fact that they knew. I once called a group of professionals technologists when their appropriate nomenclature was technicians or vice versa, and I was excoriated for my accidental use of the terms involved. The leaders of that group told me I had set their profession back 20 years by that accidental depiction of their professional title.
Later, however, I learned that expanding on the good a little, accentuating the best of the best, and ignoring the negatives could work OK because people really seemed to want to be associated with winners, with strength, with good, and with the right stuff. Once again, though, the detail people were not only disgusted by this supposed bending of principles; they were also offended by a perceived lack of character for seemingly not laying out the absolute facts like a forensic pathologist.
One of the great ironies of my life occurred when I was working for a Catholic organization that liked its leaders to walk the talk. I remember confessing once to a priest who was later arrested that my major sin was manipulating people to entice them to utilize our organization.
And thus began my realization that life is not perfect, that we all have to work every day at doing our best just to keep the wheels on the bus, to hold things together, and to preserve whatever credibility we have. Our truth, our honesty, our word, and our reputation are all we have, and if we accept ongoing lies from our leaders, we compromise not only our own future but also the future of our loved ones.
Yes, sometimes obfuscation is necessary to protect us from complete, unhinged, damaging panic, and sometimes we accept white lies to keep from hurting those we love, but living in a world where the FDA will close down sales of a product because its producers claim its healing powers are greater than those proven by billion-dollar double-blind trials while our politicians and cable talking-heads can go unchecked or not be penalized for telling thousands of lies is quite ironic.
Regardless, we are now on the precipice of what could develop into decades of conflict because our cable and social media companies discovered that lies can be profitable and keeping us in conflict can make them more money.
It蘑菇视频 up to us to decide when, if, or how to stop accepting the lies.
Nick Jacobs of Pittsburgh is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and author of the blog healinghospials.com.