Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
In defense of liars...
Freddie sings: “Nobody believes me...”
Before you pull out your handy stone tablet and haughtily declare, “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” consider the promises (sic) you heard during the last election.
Or how about undercover cops? Their entire career is contingent upon bearing false witness. Actors, fiction writers, filmmakers, lawyers, and poker players can certainly speak volumes about the virtues of deception. What about sports? What is “fake left and go right” if not a premeditated fabrication?
And then there’s the night your mother-in-law asked you to critique her experimental poetry in front of a room full of people. Could you really justify honesty as the best policy at that instant?
Of course, as Nakana Ide, co-author of “The Art of Lying,” puts it, there’s always the enticing reality that “people who can tell lies well often have deeper and more interesting lives.”
For those still unconvinced, I suggest you hark back to that time you were acting up at the supermarket at, say, age six or so...and your mother sternly warned, “If you don’t quiet down, the policeman outside is going to arrest you!”
If you had somehow summoned the courage to peek out into the parking lot, you would have quickly learned that not only was there no policeman in sight, but that dear old Mom was a friggin’ liar.
So, start fabricating, folks...everybody’s doing it.
(Longer version here: http://tinyurl.com/bezwj)
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
