but there are true white lies--the ones that are created for selfless reasons. again, they dont always work; sometimes even white lies fail and implode with disastrous consequences, which is reason why there are still some who dont believe in white lies at all. "lies are lies, all of them are sin." but in a philosophical view, nothing is black and white isnt it? after all it is easy to note that the only reasons white lies can fail is that most people are simply bad at lying. whether or not this is a good thing is a thought beyond what i am interested in right now.
what i am invested in is my belief that selfish lies are unacceptable while selfless lies are the necessary gears in the human sociomachine; the first precept founded upon the truth that selfish thinking reduces the overall quality of a group of lives regardless of the improvement of one life, the second based my observation that not every person is mentally equipped to accept whole truths (about themselves, others, life, God etc). some people must be lied to for their own sake. i can preempt any reader's reaction here, "i know i can handle the truth, so i do not want anyone to lie to me for any reason," and i can also say that no one who has lied in his or her lifetime deserves to think that thought. we have reasons for lying to certain people, and so have certain people reasons for lying to us. yes, i am willing to accept that sometimes some things should be willfully obscured from me, with my only wish being that those lying to me were better at it.
after all, its pretty shitty to discover lies against ourselves. sometimes its so shitty that our primal reactions of hurt, confusion and betrayal obscure our objectivities, and we become mired in a swamp of paranoia that prevents us from asking ourselves why we were lied to in the first place--victims of lies are not always innocent, and they rarely see this while their eyes are clouded with anger. of course, it would be even worse if there was a faulty belief that all lies are evil to begin with...if such were the case, then this perfect storm only spells destruction for their futures: woe to those who found out they were lied to! they would be completely shattered, wouldnt they? and because lies are inevitable and unavoidable, the only way to ensure our emotional survival as potential victims of lies is to break out of primitive instincts and embrace not all lies against us are truly against us.
well there is another way to survive: complete social isolation. my sister once asked me what kind of crazy person i would be if i were truly insane. i said i would be that weird old guy who lived alone and had neighbours who were so afraid to approach him for fear of getting shot at with a shotgun, but i digress.
lies are the cogs that make proper human interaction sustainable. realistically, it is not up to us to eliminate lies forever, but it would be defeatist if i stopped here. au contraire, it could definitely be in our interest to become ethical liars who do so at our own expense for the good of others. but this would be tricky, as we would constantly be in temptation to fall back into the shadow of black lies. thats why your religious leader would say, "better not to lie at all."
but i would say, yes, learn to speak silence only, and after you fail, then learn to channel your inherently sinful nature for the sake of good (white lies), but before that, learn to stop lying to yourself. after all there is no meaning in a life of self destruction.
ps 18 aug 2010 this post was mistakenly named meaning of life part cinq. this is actually part six in the meaning of life series.
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