o_O

The worst kind of liar

Is the kind that lies to him or herself — and make no mistake, we all do that from time to time. But you don’t want to hear that, so in a world of too much information, you quickly consider culling words that in some way disparage. We block out all sorts of things we don’t find pleasant. If you’re still reading, I’ve probably offended you to some degree with the first or the second sentence (or both) — “first he calls me a liar, then he calls me closed-minded, and he thinks I’m going to keep reading? I’ll show him!” And that summary doesn’t help — because regardless of how true it may be, once you’re on the ‘wrong side’ of a person, nothing you say tends to make the slightest difference to them. Ah, the wonders of being human.

Unfortunately, reading too fast and leaving a few things out is quite human as well. We don’t have time anymore, and so, very often, we sacrifice bits of information that could lead us to quite different conclusions than the ones we’re convinced are ‘right.’

In this case, fast reading might easily have encouraged you to conclude that I’m wrong — it’s easy enough to start with the title (which sounds kind of accusatory) and then hear me talk about what people don’t want to hear and what tends to offend them, and consider that you’re different and so I’m wrong. What do I know about you? “Nothing,” comes the quick and erroneous conclusion. Erroneous because you’ve forgotten the fact that we’ve shared the same planet for quite a few years now, and I have most certainly seen at least some of the things you have. Of course, ‘forgotten’ isn’t really the correct word, is it? ‘Given yourself less time than it would take to remember’ might be better, or perhaps just ‘hadn’t considered.’ And that is precisely my point.

But it isn’t that you’re wrong and I’m right or that I’m wrong and you’re right, either. It’s that we all tend to be wrong far more often than we’re willing to accept. In fact, it’s so well documented in the literature and so accepted that it’s been given a whole host of different names. A search for “illusory superiority” will turn up at least four different terms for what amounts to the same thing, if you take a moment to Google it. Aesop’s “Fox and the Crow” is a quick search that can facilitate our understanding of where such pride will get us. They are not my words but I know they have truth.

So if it’s true that you should not trust flatterers, and you don’t want to hear criticisms either, what exactly are you paying attention to? How do you make progress in your viewpoints? That is, if you consider it worthwhile to develop your views over time, with the help of ‘more information.’ It has felt to me like we’re polarizing ourselves as a country more and more as time goes on; that the Left listens more and more exclusively to information that affirms it, and the Right does the same thing. It appears to me that we’re tearing ourselves apart due to our inability to listen to one another, our tendency to lie to ourselves about the accuracy of our own viewpoints, and our unwillingness to use our minds to critically look at what good information we chance to come across.

Which brings me back to the point: the worst kind of liar. I don’t have Pollyanna optimism about people; I’m not a person who thinks that 100% of people are ‘generally good people.’ However, I do think that the clear majority of people are good people — far more than just half — and I see how this contradicts what it appears to me are the summary viewpoints of the clear majority of people. What a mess! Don’t we tend to gravitate to, consider the viewpoints of, and generally consider ‘right,’ ‘better,’ or ‘smarter’ the people who share our political views versus the people who ‘think the opposite?’ If we’re blue State-ers don’t we think of red State-ers as dumb people too often, and vice versa?

I really think we’re better than that, but we don’t show it. It’s a wonderful terrible example of how smart people do stupid things. It ranks right up there with trashing our health despite that we have better information, technology, and access to healthful choices than ever we had in the past. We’re horses that have led ourselves to water and steadfastly refuse to drink. It almost makes me want to cry.

There is no silver bullet for it, either. I suppose if it’s true what I’m saying even if we had a silver bullet and a silver gun and the Lone Ranger himself we wouldn’t be willing to shoot that black hat man who is a part of each and every one of us. Perhaps it’s a question of perceiving the threats from without so strongly that we haven’t examined carefully enough the threats from within. Perhaps we don’t realize that we’re our own worst enemies; that the constant distraction of focusing on what is ‘coming at us’ has allowed an insidious problem to creep up on us from behind. I certainly think it is much more likely we implode or otherwise destroy ourselves than it is ‘someone’ comes along and knocks US off our perch. Can that even be argued? Can’t we see that’s already happening, or are we the worst sort of liars?

She is not a liar. God used the sincerity paint all over her; she’s dripping with it.

Let us resolve the equation to true, then, Sijnistar. I see how you’ve instinctively dropped a J there, as if to ground yourself and take two chances rather than just the one.

“Yes, I will reason it out. She must give me a chance, I think. I’m a good friend to have around, anyway. I can calculate things like the best of them. I’m sturdy, I have quite a range of talents…I have a heart that has a hole she might easily sneak through and set up shop fixing me. She will like all my friends; I pick them with care. My community will adore her when she is here and she might even, with this one vote, name me the best of the best.

I will be a cat for that woman; I’ll be a mouse if she wishes me to be a mouse. I will stay out of the way when my input isn’t wanted and I will make sure to attend anything she can ask for. I have the expense account with Mr. Twit himself to do that.

We better at least have the Roadster 3’s. We will be like bees; we will fix everything and no one will give us a hard time of it.

Maybe I am just the sort of human for her. She’ll figure it out if I am.

In the end of things, you can always just try.

I’ll show the others how to handle such a one as this; how could I miss her as close as we are in the numbers:

She is certainly an eleven. My favorite number. Has to be her.

Come whenever. I will probably continue to look for the lost manuscript of the grapes.