Monday, 10 April 2023
The evolution of failure
What’s the most offensive is not their lying — one can always forgive lying — lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth — what is offensive is that they lie and worship their own lying....
Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment (1866)
We all know a great deal about lying and liars. Unfortunately they are an important part of life yet we do not weave that knowledge into a coherent, democratic standpoint on political reality. Any worthwhile debate on political lying is almost certain to be undermined by political interests because the lies create and nurture those same interests.
What is an ambitious dullard to do in order to climb the greasy pole? Even for an onlooker it is obvious enough that the ambitious climber must adopt greasy pole dishonesty. The pole climber must lie because this is where the advantage is to be found. Lies are a route to power plus social and political superiority, while truth is not.
Truth is too democratic, there is no political advantage to be gained by the pursuit of truth. Anyone can be truthful. Anyone can become a liar too, but not everyone can own lies in the sense that important lies become part of their public identity. Not everyone can stand up and take personal rhetorical ownership of politically significant lies.
It is a subtle thing, this aptitude for taking ownership of lies and reaping the political benefits. It is akin to competent acting, learning a script and repeating the lines as if they were not written by someone else. The lines become personal, they come from the heart, from visceral, caring, feeling humanity. But they are lies.
It’s a problem which cannot be resolved without taking away the advantage of lying from powerful people and institutions. Any attempt to undermine political lies is met with more lies which always have the inbuilt advantage of being mainstream.
Yet lies ultimately fail simply because they are lies, because in one way or another they are not aligned with the inflexible nature of reality. The only power which seems able to deal with political lies is reality itself, the slow yet inexorable evolution of failure.
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2 comments:
"Yet lies ultimately fail simply because they are lies, because in one way or another they are not aligned with the inflexible nature of reality. The only power which seems able to deal with political lies is reality itself, the slow yet inexorable evolution of failure."
The main trouble is that lies confer a huge short-term advantage to the liar, even though in the long term they are counter-productive for all. Successful and wealthy people are capable of building a web of lies which endures and provides benefits until after the liar's death. So they thrive, and gradually the culture and society deteriorate due to the corrosive effects on others and on standards of public life. I suspect the tendency was formerly held in check by fear of divine retribution. Philosophies like Marxism and Humanism seem to have been less successful in curbing lies. The challenge will be to build a culture where lying is discouraged. Now there seems to be little shame attached to being found out - they are impervious to ridicule. Perhaps, as well as keeping up the pressure, we should also try to get others around us to take up the fight. After all, millions of people thought that Boris should go because he was a Covid hypocrite. It would have been better if they had kicked him out because he was a lying bastard.
Sam - yes that is the problem. Blair is just one of many examples. He'll reap the benefits of lying and never play any kind of price. It becomes a major problem when we have to vote in the next general election and deal with the attractions of voting against rather than voting for.
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