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I have recently been thinking about why people lie. I admit certain circumstances in my life have brought me to this train of thought but in a broader sense I have some ideas as to how we have become a bunch of “big, fat liars”.

I would like to begin by quoting George Washington, our founding father: “I have never told a lie” but then I would begin this by lying. Somewhere along the way, we have encouraged people to lie. It starts early in our life right around the time we learn to talk. We learn that if we tell the truth we may get into trouble. So we tell our parents what they want to hear. The truth is slanted so we have a more favorable outcome. We tell our friends lies. Our parents tell us lies. It may be a “little white lie” but nonetheless it is a lie. It is okay because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. It begins small -by the time we are adults it has grown right along with us. I believe that most of the time we don’t even realize we are lying. We “stretch the truth” we “omit the truth” we find creative ways not to tell the truth. After a while, the lie becomes the truth.

Lying has become so ingrained in our society we often can’t even recognize it. Look at how many innocent people are in jail. Our prisons are filled with people who “didn’t do it”. We have become so very good at lying. We even lie to ourselves. We lie to get jobs, we lie to keep them, we lie to get out of them, it boggles the mind how many lies are told every single day. I don’t think we can stop, even if we want to.

There are television shows dedicated to the subject. “Pretty Little Liars” comes to mind, but at least they are honest about it. You know up front what you are dealing with. We encourage it, we feed on it. More times than not the person who is telling the truth is the one being punished. We call them “whistle blowers” or other names and we ostracize people for telling the truth. If you don’t lie then there seems to be something wrong with you.

When did it become so acceptable to lie? Why is it so prevalent in our society? Is it because we have been able to get away with it? There were lies that became so entrenched that there was no way out. Think Enron; think about our world situation, and think of our economy. We can’t even admit when we have no money. Honesty would scare people and cause panic. We care more about the packaging and presentation than the actual contents. Truth be told, we won’t even admit that to ourselves.

At times, what we think may even be a lie. Our product is the best or we are the best in our industry. Really? That may be what you need to tell people so you can make money, but is it the truth? You see- if we tell the whole truth entire industries will fall apart. Businesses will fold, parts of our judicial system will collapse and our economy will self-destruct. Hmmm…that may already be happening.

Where do we go from here? Are we really capable of telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I have my doubts about that. I will do my part but please don’t blame me for the collapse of the economy.