Little White Lies and Big Noses

The 'Adventures of Pinocchio' is a fairy tale that goes back to the late 1800's. This children's story is about an animated boy marionette who was carved by a poor woodcutter, and wanted to become a real boy. Most of us don't remember all his exciting adventures, but no doubt we do remember that when he told a lie his nose grew longer.

As a small boy growing up in a Catholic family I was taught that if I told a lie it was a sin or a transgression against a divine law. Indeed, my punishment for such an act was not a bigger nose, but confession in this life or punishment in the next! Now whether that is true or not I leave to the good sense of the reader. But at the risk of stating an untruth most of us have been guilty of a least one small lie sometime in our life! Do you remember what you told the policeman when you were stopped for speeding?  And what about your age? Was your Resume 100% perfect? Now and again we just might shade the truth a little by saying what we think people want to hear, to avoid hurting feelings, or just to maintain a relationship. Sometimes it's damn hard just to hold on to an inflammatory secret  entrusted to us by another. After all 'does not the end justify the means'? We might overgeneralize and, when in a bad mood, say, "This always happens to me." Does it really?

Of course deception can become serious and have unintended consequences. McDonalds on Moscow's Pushkin Square was recently  closed because of sanitary violations! Do you believe that or do you think it was in response to the U.S. and European sanctions over the Ukraine situation?  

Big and Small Lice

Sometimes lies are told to impress others and to make them more respectful towards us. I am reminded of the poem by Robert Burns "To a Louse" where he describes the local beauty impressively dressed to the hilt for Sunday church. However, a louse appears on her bonnet while she is primly sitting in her pew in front of him. Robert concludes his observation with, "O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us."

Psychologists who know something about deception have found in their research that telling lies puts a psychological or even a physical strain on us. We might understand that lying is bad for us but we also grasp that our emotions can get in the way and prevent us from 'telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.' Or we might just say, 'I'm just joking' as a way of backing out of an unwelcome remark made to another.

No one has ever accused me to my face of outright lying but I have been cited for exaggeration or of spicing up my narrative to make it more interesting! Some of the philosophers, such as Aristotle claimed that truth means being in harmony or accord with reality. But he also said,"To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing."  In the end each of us needs to determine how we judge what is true and what is not. In a changing world we all need help to determine just what is true. Usually that 'something' is a standard or an authority. But then again, perhaps that authority just might be myself?

I still don't know how my nose got so big?

And that's Dicks View of the World this Week