Lie truthfully

When we give evidence in court, we swear to tell the truth; when we marry, we vow to remain truthful; when we vie for jobs, we are supposed to provide true information; when businesses promote products and services, they are meant to supply accurate facts; when politicians are sworn in, they promise to serve the country truthfully. In reality, however, more than often they are found to tell anything but the truth.

How many examples are needed to prove this proposition? Who do you want to analyse? Clinton, Bush, Blair, Howard, Sarkojzy or Berlusconi? Carl M. Cannon has researched presidential lies and published an excellent article on the subject in the Atlantic. He explains:

"Presidents prevaricate for the reasons other people do: pathology, politeness, paternalism, convenience, shame, self-promotion, insecurity, ego, narcissism, and even, on occasion, to further a noble goal. Presidents also have burdens not felt by most of us — keeping the nation safe, for one. High-level statecraft requires a talent for telling divergent groups of people what they want to hear. This is not the best recipe for truth telling, particularly in times of war or national peril."

We are reminded of this almost every day. When success in the ongoing War on Terror appears dubious, we are told relentlessly that the campaigns are achieving peace, prosperity and democratic governance; and that they reflect the desire of the people. In truth, it can be argued that, rather than culling terrorism and violence as promised by George W Bush, the War continues to breed more terrorism, unhappiness and destruction. Although the whole world knows the reasons for allies such as Britain and Australia being involved in the War on Terror, their politicians, even today, lack the courage to acknowledge them. They prefer to tell incessant UNTRUTH in justification of their wars.

What's more, they intentionally overlook the real reasons such as the plight of the Palestinians — perhaps to appease the powerful? The conflict is a primary reason for implacable acrimony towards the US among Muslim nations. It should be evident by now that until and unless the world leadership convincingly advocates a fair deal for the Palestinians, undiminishing conflict will continue to provide pretexts for the terrorist acts of militant jihadi.

Julia Gillard, the Australian Prime Minister, is currently being taunted for breaking her campaign affirmation that there would be no carbon tax under her government. She blames the precarious situation of her minority government and its dependency on securing the Greens' support for her deviation. Another Australian ex-Prime Minister, John Howard, termed it as a non-core promise, when queried about breaking his electoral promise (he had promised not to introduce any GST if elected but broke the promise almost immediately).

How about our politicians? Where do we start? Endemic political untruth has taken the mistrust between the two main political parties to a level where neither party would accept an election under the other. In 2012 alone many incidents have been left unexplained: the killing of the journalist couple, the mysterious disappearance of an MP, the World Bank-Padma Bridge loan fiasco, the Sonali Bank-Hallmark saga, the 'vilification' against Grameen Bank and Professor Yunus, and most recently the barbaric attack on Buddhist temples.

As these incidents remain unexplained, conjecture and hearsay fill the vacuum. Consider the stories we hear as reasons behind the recent attacks: the AL has done it to make the BNP-Jamaat look radical and less tolerant; the BNP and Jamaat are trying to create instability; the Rohingya refugees have done it after receiving bad treatment by the Burmese Buddhists. These are all wrong constructs of local issues. Someone gains at another's cost.

Sagacious comments blaming the culprits pour in from the politicians, and there are reports of inquiries, but will we ever hear the truth? And this is not the first time — remember the attacks on Hindu temples, thought to be instigated by the '80s dictator on the face of his imminent collapse as an act of desperation to divert public attention, but showcased as retaliation to the demolition of the Babri Mosque in India? Time is such a healer that he has established himself as a credible third force securing 30 odd seats in successive elections without being punished for misdeeds during his reign. Such is our forgetfulness.

But how about lies used in the ordinary walk of life? The society has accepted lies in various contexts, for example to be polite, to keep conversation flowing, to favour a friend or a dear one. And there is the accepted concept of white lies.

Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioural economics at Duke University, explored issues of lying in his recently published book The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves. If pressed for time, you could read a summary on the net, like this one by The Economist:

"…He contends that the vast majority of people are prone to cheating. People are more likely to lie or cheat if others are lying or cheating, or if a member of another social group (such as a student wearing a sweatshirt from a rival university) visibly flouts the rules. They are more likely to lie and cheat if they are in a foreign country rather than at home. Or if they are using digital rather than real money. Or even if they are knowingly wearing fake rather than real Gucci sunglasses. They are more likely to lie and cheat if they have been stiffed by the victim of their misbehaviour—companies that keep customers in voicemail hell are frequent victims. And people are more likely to break their own rules if they have spent the day resisting temptation: dieters often slip after a day of self-denial…"

The puzzle stays. If it is not possible to build and maintain relationships with a spouse, with friends, siblings, families, businesses or communities based on lies, then how can leaders — political, religious, business — get away with it and be able to thrive on it? Because they have the power and the wit to get away with it?
As I beat my chest in asking my acquaintances how they do it, or whether they feel severely compromised by their planned lies, I get a few common answers:

"Every one lies; Life's truth is not as simple as black and white, it contains many shades of grey; Kahti sonai gohona hoy na, khad misha te hoi. Ornaments cannot be made with 100% pure Gold"

Yet, we ask our children to be truthful and at times we face a challenging riposte. If only they knew that, as adults they will not be required to perform truthfulness so truthfully! Instead, they might be allowed to lie truthfully. An unresolved truth of life, one day they would grow to realise.

——————————
Irfan Chowdhury writes from Canberra, Australia.