Why Lies?

[le_bebna_kamni]

I found an interesting LJ community recommended to me on my home screen: iamtelling, with the description "Tell lies you wish you (or everyone else) believed".

There's not much there -- a single entry that reads rather poetically. But it got me to musing: are there any lies that I wish other people would believe?

And after sitting there for several minutes, the only answer that would come was "No, but I there are several *truths* that I wish people believed." How do I answer a question like that, when surely one of my greatest values is truth?

But then it hit me: the question for me is not "Are there any lies that I currently wish people would believe," but rather "Is there any part of my current ideology, if I found out it were false, that I couldn't give up and would prefer to accept (and propagate) as a lie?"

And that, my friends, is a hard question indeed. So I'm asking for your opinions to help me figure out my own thoughts in this regard: is there anything that you currently believe to be true that you would be unable to accept the possibility it could be false?

Comments

[sinmantyx.livejournal.com]

This doesn't really count, because I know it's a lie:

"If you work hard, you can accomplish anything."

With the corollary:

"You can be anything you want to be."

It's usually true to some degree, but it is essentially a lie. It can be used to help motivate people who have given up hope or would stop trying to better their circumstances out of frustration, low expectations or basic laziness.

However, when believed in an unbalanced way - it causes people to go through all sorts of hardship - putting effort into completely unrealistic pursuits and never making peace with life.

[le-bebna-kamni.livejournal.com]

You know, that's a nice lie that I can think would be acceptable to believe, provided that the same person believing the lie doesn't extrapolate it to other people.

I have a very idealistic friend who believes that God (big "G") has given all people the tools to succeed, so people who don't must not be trying hard enough. This belief can be used to justify all kinds of things, from taking away state-subsidized health care for children or cutting back food stamp programs.

He gets a little uncomfortable when I talk about people with congenital brain defects, or point out that if everyone thought "success" entailed being the fastest runner in the world it would be logically impossible for everyone to succeed. But his belief remains unchanged.

[sinmantyx.livejournal.com]

How about this one:

"The people running the government are more competent than I would be at running the government because they have experience, training and common sense that uniquely qualify them to make good sound decisions that benefit not just our country, but the world."

[le-bebna-kamni.livejournal.com]

That's definitely something I *wish* were true, but I'm not sure wrongly pretending it is would make me any happier.

[orogeny2000.livejournal.com]

oooo, sounds like the concept of the philosopher-king.

[orogeny2000.livejournal.com]

Something I believe, that I would not accept the possibility of its being falce:

There are always options. Sure, they may suck, but there are always alternatives. ie: destiny is not pre determined...ie: there are more than just two choices.

Example...travler comes to a fork in the road. The sign pointing left says 'deadly dragon doom assured' the sign to the right says 'evil troll eliminates you' Are there just two choices, dragon or troll? Is doom asured? NO! I'd say, well, you could exit the path, plunge through the forest or field or whatever. Or maybe trun back, or looks for an unseen path...or maybe down the road one of the doom pathe branches again...or even if somehow you are forced to take one path or another...maybe there is a way of surviving or escapind the creature. I don't like the movies with "bla bla bla-it's the only way" I don't buy it. I won't buy it. So...there's my two cents.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

When I left religion, the major stress that I was reacting to was the idea that everyone around me who I trusted was doing what you describe. When that happens, it can result in certain behaviors that I consider completely out of bounds.

The thing is, what I have come to realize in the most recent evolution of my ideas, is that behavior is what matters, not what truths you claim. When someone holds a truth claim which they will propogate whether or not it's true, they just aren't allowed to make me live by it. They aren't allowed to claim the moral high ground from lies. They aren't allowed to expect me to agree with it on the basis that they need to believe it. They aren't allowed to exempt it from question.

By saying this I'm arguing with their behavior, not arguing with their claim. It irritates the ever-living crap out of me when people do these things.

[delosd.livejournal.com]

Responding to your restatement of the original question, it occurs to me that I don't *think* that there is any external thing that if I discovered it was not true I would be sorely tempted to propogate it as a lie.

However...

There is (or maybe even are) a kind of internal belief that I would have great trouble parting with, and am not sure that I would not choose to simply delude myself. That belief is that I am in many ways a special person, not just "another one of the herd". If it were proved to me that in any way that truly counted I was no different from anyone else...

Well, I'm not sure me and my self-image could live with that one.