"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil." Socrates
Lying is something you do by choice. You think about what you want to say and then act on it. It is a conscious decision made. Thus it is controllable and utterly WRONG!
Well, some white lies may be justified! When your sister is pregnant and she asks if she looks fat, you cannot reply by saying, “Yes, actually you look like Shrek’s wife Fiona!” You are obligated to tell a little white lie and say,” No, you have never looked so beautiful.” If you refrain from doing so, you may end-up losing your sister indefinitely and be cut from any duties as aunt of the unborn baby!
However lying to yourself is a very different story. What is your favourite lie about yourself? Is it that you are a fun-loving human being and the truth is that you hate life and would rather commit suicide? The reality of it is that lying ALWAYS backfires.
By lying to yourself, you are trying to justify something which is wrong or not true. You never learn to deal with the truth and certain issues efficiently and you obtain a mental state of “there is nothing wrong with lying.” It is like being an alcoholic. The first step to recovery is admitting that you are one, and then taking various measures to recover. Lying will only set you back, and escalate into something more serious.
By adopting such a state of mind, you may also feel comfortable lying to others. All trust in you will be lost. With no trust, you can have no relationships. And like Abraham Lincoln said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
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Not everything's black and white. Actually most things in life fall in a grey area.But I also agree that you need to be honest with yourself. Sometimes we only can face the truth about ourselves at a certain time and maybe only over a lifetime, learn the complete truth about ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI also think the reason we lie to ourselves is usually when we did or are doing something that we know is wrong and we try to justify it. We tell ourselves that there is nothing wrong with what we are doing and we need not worry. We need to listen to that little voice telling us something is wrong and stop lying to ourselves.
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