Age Thomson
Jan 31, 2015 2:40 PMComments made by Pete earlier in this thread with regards to LYING have gotten me thinking, a lot, about this.
As is often the case with comments posted in the tender for law group, sometimes they are so short and simple that they seem to be at first glance cryptic. My thinking when I first arrived in this group to such comments was that they were so short and simple that they were to force you (the reader) to dig into them and find the reason that it is true on your own. That the journey to that destination will give you the understanding you need to validate the statement.
I am now starting to also see something else that is tied to this as well. And yes, it has to do with computer science :) By taking a concept and breaking it down into the smallest possible amount of words, we are simply taking the large equation and reducing it to the simplest logical answer. No extra bits required.
So Pete's comment was: "Pete Daoust Stop lying, 24/7....."
My initial thought here was "Ok, let's define lying, and then let's not do that for 7 days".
Upon looking up the definition of the word lying I came up with:
1: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
2: to create a false or misleading impression
Now it should not be too hard to stop doing that for 7 days right?
The easiest way I could think of to do that was to simply shut the fucking pie-hole! :) Since I know I am lazy and prefer easy, I decided to try and put this into practice. I set about on my 7 day experiment of not lying and I found that for the most part it was pretty easy to maintain, just by not speaking at all unless I really had to, and when I had to, just sticking to FACTS. I recognized some situations where I was expected to lie, and exited those situations as best I could without speaking. I found myself starting to avoid most of the people I would normally interact with, because they would constantly put me into situations where I was expected to lie. I also found that I could start seeing lies that they would tell, easier that I could spot them before.
This is quite a revelation to me, and I needed to dig further into this "lying". Perhaps if I can make this an automatic process.... Part of my brain's firmware.... Pete said that after I stopped lying, that perhaps other pieces of this puzzle would fall into place. One thing that I noticed though was with my own thoughts. I mean those ones I think without voicing... The little conversations we have with ourselves. I could see that there were lies in there, that I would tell to myself. Now THOSE will take some work I am sure.
Now most of you will recall the article Tara Duncan wrote where she spoke about lies, trust, relationships etc.... I revisited this article again with a new angle of looking at lying. It is clear that there is more to this than it appears on the surface. A slightly longer essay on lying that I found was included in that .torrent link that Scott posted a while back. (I think it was a philosophy collection). It was titled "Lying" by Sam Harris. He covers all the same points that Tara did, and a few more.
In fact, in his opening he says "I do not remember what I thought about lying before I took "The Ethical Analyst," but the course accomplished as close to a firmware upgrade of my brain as I have ever experienced. I came away convinced that lying, even about the smallest matters, needlessly damages personal relationships and public trust."
Helloss! :)
This is exactly what this thread is hopefully to uncover! How to change the firmware in our brains.... It is a very good read.
He concludes with this: "Lying is, almost by definition, a refusal to cooperate with others. It condenses lack of trust and trustworthiness into a single act. It is both a failure of understanding and an unwillingness to be understood. To lie is to recoil from a relationship.
By lying, we deny others a view of the world as it is. Our dishonesty not only influences the choices they make, it often determines the choices they CAN make - and in ways we cannot always predict. Every lie is a direct assault upon the autonomy of those we lie to. And by lying to one person, we potentially spread falsehoods to many others - even to whole societies. We also force upon ourselves subsequent choices - to maintain the deception or not - that can complicate our lives. In this way, every lie haunts our future. There is no telling when or how it might collide with reality, requiring further maintenance. The truth never needs to be tended in this way. It can simply be reiterated.
The lies of the powerful lead us to distrust governments and corporations. The lies of the weak make us callous toward the suffering of others. The lies of conspiracy theorists raise doubts about the honesty of whistleblowers, even when they are telling the truth. Lies are the social equivalent of toxic waste - everyone is potentially harmed by their spread. How would your relationships change if you resolved to never lie again? What truths might suddenly come into view in your life? What kind of person would you become? And how might you change the people around you? It is worth finding out."
Unique Facebook User ID:
Last Updated: Jan 31, 2015 2:40 PM
Type of Post:
Place of Post: