Truth is coherent
Martin Johnson | 12.08.2004 14:48 | Indymedia
I'm a hopeless liar. Not to say I do it a lot, but the opposite. I'm so
hopeless at the game of lying I have to avoid it. Unless I have a moral
reason to lie ('No commandant, Anne Frank is not hiding in my attic' or less
seriously, 'Yes, you look fantastic!') I find it much easier not to. Just in
practical terms, lies require a lot more maintenance than truth. If pressed,
you can't rely on actuality to fill in the detail. You have to produce other
supporting lies and these may not cohere with other aspects of reality,
causing you to generate even more lies of increasing feebleness, with
increasing dry-mouth - ugh!
hopeless at the game of lying I have to avoid it. Unless I have a moral
reason to lie ('No commandant, Anne Frank is not hiding in my attic' or less
seriously, 'Yes, you look fantastic!') I find it much easier not to. Just in
practical terms, lies require a lot more maintenance than truth. If pressed,
you can't rely on actuality to fill in the detail. You have to produce other
supporting lies and these may not cohere with other aspects of reality,
causing you to generate even more lies of increasing feebleness, with
increasing dry-mouth - ugh!
Stick to the truth on the other hand, and you have the whole state of the
world to support you. You don't need to make anything else up because you
never made anything up in the first place. When asked, 'Where were you at
six-thirty last night?' you can reply with confidence, 'On the bus'. When
questioned further, 'Did anyone else see you on the bus?' you can reply,
'Yes, my friend Stan'. You can say this and feel comfortable that they may
contact Stan for corroboration. You don't have to slip-off and phone Stan to
prime him because he actually was on the bus with you. Worst thing that you
might be in such circumstances is mistaken, but if you have been acting in
good faith then at least you can explain how you came to be mistaken, hand
on heart.
I can't be sure whether Aaronovitch, Toynbee, Cohen and Hari actually
believe their own writing or if they are card carrying mercenaries like Paul
Johnson or Roger Scruton. In an important sense it really doesn't matter.
Their own opinion of what they write has no bearing on its actual
truthfulness. Reality is independent of opinion and whatever they might
think the world-views they espouse simply don't tally with reality. They're
grossly incoherent. You can't oppose terrorism AND support the 'war on
terror'. To any rational and informed mind the two are mutually exclusive.
Follow link to the rest of the article -
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/66722284?-573
world to support you. You don't need to make anything else up because you
never made anything up in the first place. When asked, 'Where were you at
six-thirty last night?' you can reply with confidence, 'On the bus'. When
questioned further, 'Did anyone else see you on the bus?' you can reply,
'Yes, my friend Stan'. You can say this and feel comfortable that they may
contact Stan for corroboration. You don't have to slip-off and phone Stan to
prime him because he actually was on the bus with you. Worst thing that you
might be in such circumstances is mistaken, but if you have been acting in
good faith then at least you can explain how you came to be mistaken, hand
on heart.
I can't be sure whether Aaronovitch, Toynbee, Cohen and Hari actually
believe their own writing or if they are card carrying mercenaries like Paul
Johnson or Roger Scruton. In an important sense it really doesn't matter.
Their own opinion of what they write has no bearing on its actual
truthfulness. Reality is independent of opinion and whatever they might
think the world-views they espouse simply don't tally with reality. They're
grossly incoherent. You can't oppose terrorism AND support the 'war on
terror'. To any rational and informed mind the two are mutually exclusive.
Follow link to the rest of the article -
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/66722284?-573
Martin Johnson
Homepage:
http://www.globalecho.org
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