How a lie can destroy us

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself.”—Teller

 

NOBODY has escaped the temptation of lying.

Sinner or saint, everyone lies or has lied at least once or more in their lifetime.

When we are afraid to admit a misdemeanor at home as kids, we lie to our parents to dodge a penalty; we lie to our teachers if we break the school rules to escape sanction.

When we are worried of losing the trust and confidence of friends over an honest mistake, we sometimes thought of lying as a way to wiggle out from dire straits.

When we are shamed to admit something that will place us in imminent embarrassment, we think lying will altogether expunge the unpleasant feeling.

When our partners suspect us of committing infidelity; when we are dishonest in our financial and marital dealings, sometimes we think it’s easy to lie to erase the stigma of our trespasses.

Others lie about their age to qualify in a competition with age brackets.

When we lose in a fair and honest race or election, we lie to assuage a wounded pride and mollify a tattered ego.

But lying—big or small, one-time or sustained, written or verbal, excessive or sugar-coated—will never redeem us; it will never save us from perdition.

 

-o0o-

 

When President Donald Trump lied repeatedly for two months that the November 3, 2020 U.S. presidential election he clearly lost was stolen from him, Americans who voted for him believed him.

He used deception, which refers to the act—big or small, cruel or kind—of encouraging people to believe information that is not true only because he couldn’t accept defeat. He’s a sore loser.

The President sought refuge in lying as a common form of deception by stating something known to be untrue with the intent to deceive only because he still wanted to remain in power even if he was “fired” in a fair and honest election.

As a result, Mr. Trump’s voters swallowed hook, line, and sinker anything he said about the “rigged” election; they will no longer listen to the truth.

They will ignore the reality that Mr. Trump lost by eight million in popular votes and in the Electoral College, 306-232. It’s not even close, but Mr. Trump and his dishonest enablers still had the gall to lie and lie again and again.

This is a clear example of how a single lie—repeated several times—became the “truth” as popularized by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

A lie than can destroy us.

“Trust is the bedrock of social life at all levels, from romance and parenting to national government. Deception always undermines it. Because truth is so essential to the human enterprise, which relies on a shared view of reality, the default assumption most people have is that others are truthful in their communications and dealings. Most cultures have powerful social sanctions against lying,” Psychology Today.

Mr. Trump and his enablers need to stop lying in order to bring back the trust and faith of the Americans to the electoral system and to save America from civil war.

 

-o0o-

 

THE worst thing that could happen to any public servant is to be slapped and convicted with a graft and corruption case near and during retirement age.

If there is a jail term aside from forfeiture of benefits, among other penalties, it’s really hell.

The sorrows, anxieties and stress felt by those convicted and their relatives and friends are doubled.

They also have domino effects.

Their health will be affected. When the mind is in deep sadness, the heart is in pain; the body deteriorates.

The children are traumatized.

Instead of spending the retirement years enjoying the fruits of their labor, they will agonize worrying how to wiggle out from the mess.

Those who are remorseful and bothered by their conscience console themselves by the thoughts that if they could only turn back the time, they would never ever dip their fingers into the cookie jar.

Those who think they are innocent and only unfairly dragged in the fiasco and have not benefited even a single centavo, will fight to clear their names and defend their dignity to death.

But it’s stamina-sapping. Nerve-tingling. Time-consuming.

Not during the retirement age.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)