Liar Liar Pants on Fire!!
Have you ever felt like screaming at someone – liar, liar pants on fire!
I have recently had that experience in my current case (which may well be the death of me)… The other side seems to keep presenting arguments which are based on complete lies. I wonder whether their client believes them as truths, which I hope is the case, and it’s just a matter of perspective or whether their client is blatantly telling lies to try and win the case… Only time will tell!
This has got me thinking about the lies people tell…
I confess that during my lifetime I have told lies. Sometimes it has been to get out of doing something I didn’t want to do or couldn’t be bothered doing. Sometimes it was to try and protect myself from either looking like a fool or showing my true feelings about something.
The question that keeps coming to mind is – Do we need to lie?
A friend of mine has previously blogged about the “little white lies” men tell in order to spend more time with their friends… A part of me was sad to read that 42% of men (a conservative statistic) felt they needed to do this – let’s face it a man needs his friends, so why should he need to lie about spending time with them?
Then there are the lies people tell to not ‘hurt the other persons feelings’… For instance, when a guy tells his girlfriend/wife – “no, your bottom doesn’t look big in those pants” – when we all know the question is posed because deep down inside the girlfriend/wife knows that it does and just wants some reassurance that it is ok! Or when you just can’t be bothered to hang out with your friend or loved one but instead of telling them the truth you say – “sorry, I have [put in excuse here - e.g. work, some other commitment etc]“.
So, why not just tell each other the truth?
I think the main reason why we lie is that often the other person doesn’t actually want to hear the truth. Robert J. Ringer once said “people say they love the truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true”…
I work in a profession that is legislated to tell the truth yet has the reputation of always lying. This reputation has to be based on some truth, doesn’t it?
So, I make this public commitment to tell the truth. Now I know some may get offended by my honest answers…
BUT I earnestly believe that people deserve the truth and – unlike the belief of Colonel Jessep in A Few Good Men – can actually handle the truth!
