Intentional Deception

“Oh what a tangled web we weave,” wrote Sir Walter Scott (not Shakespeare) “when first we practice to deceive.”  Intentional deception is simply telling a lie.  Lying is something we have all done and do with great skill and proficiency.  Anyone who claims to have never told a lie is a liar, including George Washington.  Individuals and groups have become adept at intentional deception—in business, in families, in politics, in international affairs, and in person-to-person relationships.  “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones” applies to all of us when it comes to the fault (habit, sin, whatever) of intentional deception (even though we often think our lies are “little white lies” and not “dirty’ ones, implying that our lying is not as awful or as consequential as the lies of others—intentional self-deception).   We are as skillful at deceiving ourselves as we are of deceiving others. 

The distinction we make between “white lies” and “dirty lies” (more damaging, more consequential) is questionable.  Peter’s denial of knowing Jesus  was a self-protective alibi—a form of lying we have all used since childhood. Many would say that if Peter had gone further with his deception and said that he knew Jesus as a villain and an enemy of the state, his lie would be far more serious, more damaging, more consequential and more offensive.  Really? (Jesus was crucified, regardless.) Can we make such a distinction?  Frank Sonnenburg says,   “White lies matter.”   

Lying has lately been gaining some respectability in that it is being practiced without apology by persons and agencies in high places.  Daniel Dale (Toronto Star) recently wrote:  “The pace of the president’s dishonesty has increased significantly in 2018.  After averaging 2.9 false claims per day in 2017, he is averaging 5.1 per day in 2018.” Few say anything about it anymore—the lying has become what we call “normalized.”  And that is frightening, especially when one remembers this line from George Orwell’s novel, “1984:”“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.  It was their final, most essential command.”

We all have and do intentionally deceive ourselves and others.  When our lies are given respectability and acceptance, when lying becomes the norm, it has a corrosive impact on society.  Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:  “Every violation of truth (whether by you, me, or the other guy) is a stab at the health of human society.”