José N.
Harris
What is it
that we are all lying, all the time? I don’t want to make an exception for
myself here, all I say is that I am trying to avoid lies, but I am sure I have
lied many times in my life, as we all have.
It seems as
if people want to be lied to, they enjoy the lies, it seems to me as if there
was an unspoken agreement that says we should lie whenever it is possible.
We lie all
the time, regardless of what we are talking about. We even lie to ourselves and
sometimes we even believe these lies. It seems as if a lie becomes the truth,
once it is told often enough.
I sincerely
try to tell the truth, or rather I tell what I think to be the truth, as no one
can ever be sure what the truth is. However, I have made the experience that
the truth is not what people want to hear. Nonetheless, I believe in being
honest, it is of value for me.
I really
don’t want to say that I am better than anyone, I am not, but this is my point
of view and I believe in it. I trust everyone until there is a reason that
proves this person should not be trusted, I believe in the good in people and I
believe that people tell me the truth, because I would tell them the truth,
especially when it comes to friends. Maybe I am naïve, but then be it so.
However, once I know about people telling me significant lies, it is hard for
me to forgive, it is hard for me to trust them ever again. Honesty and confidence
in someone belong together, I trust because I have faith in my friends, but
once the honesty is lost, the faith is lost, too.
What is the
point of inventing great stories about something that could be told in one
little candid sentence? I understand that people do lie sometimes in order to
not hurt someone. But if we are totally honest, most of the lies we tell are
told because it’s easier than telling the truth, because it seems to be more comforting
to ourselves.
First,
there are those lies we all agree upon. It’s when someone asks you how you are and
you tell him you are fine. You meet people in the street you have not seen for
many years, you are both busy and you both agree silently that you do not want
to hear of all the problems of the other person.
Then there
are the big lies, lies that are told because it is easier to tell them, because
we just don’t want to tell the truth, lies told in order to intentionally
deceive someone. Lies that we tell because we want to appear better, greater,
more successful than we are. Those are the
lies some people even seem to believe for themselves. Besides, there are also lies that are created to make
people believe in something that doesn’t exist and the creator knows about their
falseness but tells them anyway, lies that are told in order to achieve
something, lies that can even be told to a whole state.
Finally, there
are even false statements that are told for no apparent reason. They are absolutely
unnecessary and they are the reason making me believe that we are all just big
liars, that we enjoy the untruth. Why do we tell these lies? Is it because we
are afraid of being hurt if we were totally honest? Do we even recognize anymore
that we are being dishonest? Is there really an unspoken agreement in not
telling the truth? Why can’t we all try to be honest?