Killing Truth and Immortal Lies

The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Advice to Youth

I have lived in a small town for many years. I have seen the best liar win in many arguments. Others judge people emotionally by the untruths they have heard. People become ostracized and not believed. It does not matter how many witnesses the person has or how much the truth is told. The one who is vicious and doing this because of his own agenda is considered the interesting one.

Everyone likes to believe bad things about others. Especially in the business I do. People with prior agendas will cause problems. You tell the truth and it does not matter, you have references and you made them up. You have people who you have achieved results with and it is ignored.

Everything is back to the basics of a lie traveling faster than the truth. Why is that so true? It is the nature of human beings to find a scapegoat which is normally someone or something they are jealous of in every way. It is what happened to the Jews as they were successful and in a bad economy they were used as a scapegoat. So a person with a bad experience will harm others by lying about them and taking out their misery on them. Any minority, creed, sexual orientation, or other person who is different or doing different work knows this feeling.

A person who lies about others always is a miserable person. They have something to prove so it is always their ego involved, and they want to show how great they are to others. The victim always tells the truth and no one listens, proves it and everyone wants to believe the worse because they want to believe bad about others. Yet think what sort of person needs to lie and get attention by ruining another person. If they do it to one person they will do it to others.

The sad fact is most of the time the people who do this never take the time to know the person being lied about and prejudge them. They treat others badly because of what they have heard about their race, their profession and what they do, they bully them, intimidate them, and make themselves feel powerful and that sort of person is what is wrong with the world.  The ones accusing others of being liars are normally the ones who are the liars just like the jealous person who accuses everyone else is normally the one running around in a marriage. Make up your own mind instead of listening to others and realize that the person being slandered might be telling the truth.

Gossip, Bad words, and Hurting Others

"If those bad words come, I let them come in one ear and go out the other. I never let them come out of my mouth. If a bad word comes in your ear and then comes out of your mouth, it will go someplace and hurt somebody. If I did that, that hurt would come back twice as hard on me."

-- Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA  I wonder if anyone keeps track of how many times they say something that could hurt someone? I know everyone will repeat things about others both good and bad. Yet even saying good things can cause problems. Some times it is just like some bad word going into your ear and coming out your mouth. You can even watch yourself say something and wonder why you are doing it. Everyone also says things that can hurt others. No one is innocent of this form of harm and gossip. The Jewish religion calls it Loshon Hara and it is one of the forbidden things to do to others. You are not supposed to use words to hurt or harm others even if the facts are true. It is so common there are children rhymes to make it easier to take. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." It may sound good but it is very untrue. People judging others, and treating others badly hurts. The words can cause problems especially with making the things said more dramatic. Gossip does hurt others. People seem to stick together in groups. We also put others into groups. We do not see others as real people instead it is seeing ourselves as separate. The groups can be anything. Yet once something is classified as outside of the group and separate then it is when danger can happen to anything not in the group. We have examples through out history of people picking scapegoats and making them a bad example or using them to get everyone to do violence or that cause group problems. Helen of Troy had problems for being beautiful. The Japanese were interned in camps because they could be identified as separate. The color of the skin has been used by every race to say bad things and make others different. Beer commercials make it sound as if the beer is more understanding than the women of the world. A scapegoat used to be the goat sacrificed to appease everyone. In King Kong the actress sacrificed to King Kong was a scapegoat. Anyone that stands up and takes the hit for the group he is a member of is a scapegoat. Many people in jobs can not feel good about themselves unless they pick an office scapegoat to feel superior over. So it is more on the same subject of how we treat our fellow man. Responsibility is the one of the ways to resolve these issues and competing with ourselves. It is not easy to do. Yet in the end it comes down to one thing. We can watch our own actions and hope that good manners become contagious.We can watch ourselves and not do the bad actions that have harmed us.