Ghost Town

Imagine a dispute.
Two opposing sides.
You know, courtroom drama.

There are two sides to every story, right?
One side claims one thing, the other side claims the opposite thing.
Most people would say that the “truth” is somewhere in the middle, maybe around halfway between the two opposing claims.

And they'd be wrong.

If one party is telling the truth and the other party is lying, then any "compromise" will always be to the disadvantage of the person telling the truth and to the advantage of the person who lies.

Let's illustrate with math:
Suppose A claims that 2 + 2 = 4.
But B claims that 2 + 2 = 8.
If you assume the truth is somewhere in the middle, you might conclude that 2 + 2 = 6. Or maybe 5, or possibly 7.
No matter which compromise you make, it's away from the truth and toward the lie.

There are two sides to every story, all right.
Sometimes those two sides are Right and Wrong.

I’m thinking about this today partly because I went to court to try to recover some losses that resulted when a certain party breached an agreement.
And the party in question lied under oath about everything except her name.

Further, she brought in all kinds of other things that were irrelevant and that were also lies, which she attempted to sneak past the judge without offering any evidence in support thereof – because there isn’t any.

I don’t know the judge.
I don’t know how this is going to turn out.

But that's the little picture.

There's a big picture, too.

Torture.

We're actually having pro-and-con discussions about torture.
Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot, People.
TORTURE??????

Hard as it is to believe, some people advocate it, claiming that it "works."
Well, yes. It "works."
That is, torture gets the torturer what he wants -- a confession from the tortured.
The confession isn't necessarily true --- unless you happen to believe that all those folks (almost all of them women) who confessed and were hanged or burned in Europe during the Witch-craze actually were witches!

Well, rape "works," too.
The rapist gets what he wants.
Let's go with that.
No more flowers and candy.
No more dinner and a show.
No more sweet words.
Just brute strength.
Take what you want because you can.
Great.
Stop the world; I want to get off....


All this brings me to reflect upon how stupid it is to be honest, when the world clearly belongs to liars, cheats and thieves (and torturers). From the top on down, nobody keeps their word about anything, nobody tells the truth about anything, nobody accepts the responsibility for anything. From world renown professional liars like Bush and Obama, right down to simpering, manipulative liars like today’s defendant, it’s all one slimy mass of lies.

The liars often get away with lying because they get someone to “like” them.
Obama, telegenic and well-spoken – especially in contrast to his predecessor --- gets by on his “charm.” Apparently we value charm more than we value truth. And when you breathe a little critical thinking on his supporters’ arguments, they blow away like so much dust and what’s left is that they support him because they “like” him.

That’s the story with the young woman in court today, too. She gets away with being a liar because she’s “cute.” Young, pretty. She MUST be right.
Under her façade she’s the ugliest liar I’ve ever personally met, completely without conscience. She lies to everyone so much about everything, I wonder if she, herself, knows what the truth is, anymore.
Hell, she might as well be in politics.

Given the reality of the situation, why would anyone EVER tell the truth, keep his word, and so on?

I don’t know.

Maybe it’s a matter of ego.
Maybe I wouldn’t be able to stand myself if I was like everyone else.
Maybe it’s a habit I just can’t break.
Maybe I need a 12-step program.

I can’t explain why the truth is important to me, why keeping my word is important to me, at least, I can't explain it in a way that makes any mathematical, game-theory sense.

It just is.

If you believe in truth and honor, too, I feel sorry for you.

You’re in a very lonely place.

Very lonely, indeed.


sj