This commentary is by Bob Stannard of Manchester, an author, musician and former state legislator and lobbyist.
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Not a trace of doubt in my mind
Said, I’m a believer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (I’m a believer)
Said, I’m a believer, yeah (I’m a believer)
I said, I’m a believer, yeah (I’m a believer — The Monkees
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I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just give me some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just give me some truth — John Lennon
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“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” — Wizard of Oz
There are two kinds of people: those who believe and those who don’t. There are those who believe in organized religion and those who don’t. There are those who believe politicians who knowingly lie to you to your face. There are those who believe QAnon is all about facts.
There are those who believe in Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and other TV personalities who have a perverse relationship with the truth. There are those who believe that Putin, Xi and Kim Jung Un are telling them the truth.
The fact is that the truth is really hard to come by these days. Is Gov. Ron DeSantis’ full-on attack on Disney World really about his perceived obsession with those who are gay and/or transgender, or is there another reason?
Why do these people and organizations that wield such power and influence over others feel compelled to lie? Why can’t they just level with us and tell us the truth? Perhaps it’s because the truth poses a threat and lies simply work better when it comes to influencing and controlling people.
Why do those of Christian faith insist that Jesus was fair-skinned and had light-colored hair and maybe blue eyes, when it should be obvious that he was from the Middle East and probably had brown skin?
Why is it that we fear the truth? Why is it that teaching our children our real, unabridged, unmitigated truth is so threatening? What’s wrong with telling the truth? Shouldn’t telling the truth be a more admirable thing than telling lies?
Is it that we humans would much rather believe lies than truths? It sure does seem as though that is the case, at least for many people. The Russian people today are being fed lies by their leader, Vladimir Putin, about his illegal invasion of Ukraine. Most Russians believe that this brutal, unnecessary act is justified, because that’s what they’re being told. Putin has shut down every independent news organization, so now the only information that the Russian people are getting is Putin’s lies.
In this country, we nearly lost our democracy and permanently installed an authoritarian, pathological liar. That really happened right here in America. People were told by a leader they admired that the election was rigged and stolen. They were encouraged to come to Washington, D.C., and participate in a violent insurrection. Those in the former president’s inner circle were working very hard to halt a free and fair election process in their demented hopes that they could keep their loser candidate in office.
Lying today appears to be the new norm, not just in America but globally. “Brain imaging studies show that lying takes greater mental effort than telling the truth, and children’s ability to fib increases hand in hand with their overall cognitive development. ‘Honesty is our default mode,’ says Xiaoqing Hu, a psychology doctoral candidate at Northwestern University.”
However, if one knows that the masses will believe lies over the truth, and that telling lies work to that individual’s advantage, then lies are what you’re going to get. You can expect to hear charlatans twist words in a Bible, Koran or any other religious book to fit their own needs. When people like Jimmy Swaggert, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Billy Graham, Joel Osteen, the Falwells, Pat Robertson, et al., look into the TV camera and declare that you have to give them money so that you can be closer to a god, that should be enough to turn you off right away. But nope, people take what little money they have and hand it right over.
When a politician challenges an election over 60 times and loses all of them and yet continues to claim that the elections were stolen, people should run away from this person quickly. But did they? Quite the opposite. Dozens of states are now enacting ridiculous laws restricting the right to vote based on lies.
Lying is serious business and can seriously be good for business if your business model is based on lying and cheating. For the rest of us, the solution is quite simple. Question authority. Do not take what’s being fed to you at face value. Do a little research from credible sources and determine what the truth really is.
When a person or entity makes wild claims, you’re not obligated to believe them. In fact, you are obligated to question the claims and verify that what’s being said is true. If it’s not true, then you’re obligated to call them out.
It always comes down to you.
