My Rant for June - LIARS

There is probably nothing I hate worse than liars. All my life I have been plagued by them. It amazes me what people will lie about – from the smallest things to the most important things. People will lie when the truth would actually be more beneficial to them. I have been lied to and lied about all my life. You would think that, by now, I would expect it, or at the very least, not be so surprised by it when it happens. I am not sure which is worse either – being lied to, or being lied about. Probably the hardest thing to deal with is when you are lied to by people who you love, like family members, or by people who you think love you. Those hurt the worse.

But then there are people in the world who will lie ABOUT you due to some inferiority complex of their own. Those people really puzzle me. What is it they hope to gain? They know the truth. They know they are lying. They are the ones who have to live with the fact that they are simply outright liars. Do they find it easy to sleep at night knowing that they have lied about someone and possibly hurt them in some way?

Then there is the “white” lie. This is the one I am guilty of committing. It is hard to tell someone the truth if it will hurt them and does not matter in the long run. For example, if you have a friend who has been dieting for some time but you cannot tell that they have lost weight, but they ask you, “Can you tell I have lost 5 pounds?” Well, I may not be able to tell it but I will say, “yes” because they are excited about the loss, and though I may not see it, to be truthful and say that no, I cannot tell that they have lost weight, is just mean and discouraging. Another example would be if you are having dinner at someone’s home, and you do not really care for what they have served. If asked, I will lie and say it is delicious rather than tell them that I don’t like their cooking. Again, this is a white lie and is intended to avoid hurting someone over something trivial. It does not give me personal gain and it does not hurt them either.

But there is a HUGE difference between white lies and lies that are intended to cause harm to another person, and those are the kinds of lies I tend to have to endure. Some people will tell you they will always be there for you if you need them, but when you need them, they are no where to be found. Others will lie about you to a third party and sometimes that third party will believe them without gathering all the facts first. Of course, this is an error in reasoning called “jumping to conclusions” which is one of the most basic problems in critical thinking abilities. Some people will lie about you to cover up their own screw-ups or as a “red herring” in order to escape their underlying problem – whatever it may be. Sometimes, very immature people will band together to lie about someone, believing that there is safety in numbers. Their lies might even work for them, but then they have to deal with Karma.

One thing I do know is this: eventually liars are uncovered and pay the price, usually in a much more costly way than they ever imagined. No, the world is not a “fair” place, but I do believe that eventually the bad Karma they have created for themselves will return to them in some way. The problem is that many people are not smart enough to figure out why suddenly all these bad things are happening to them. All they really have to do is think back over their lives and ask themselves this question: did I lie about someone to such an extent that I caused them harm? If the answer is yes, then they might discover that it is time to learn the value of honesty. It is never fun to have to admit that you have not done the best you could, or that you were wrong, or that you made a bad decision, but sometimes you just have to own your own mistakes, admit them, and move on. But for some people, this is never an option. They would rather lie than tell the truth.

Hopefully, this will be my one and only rant of the month! I prefer the light hearted blog entries myself.