Insincerity is the lubricant of social intercourse
We've all heard about the latest VP F-Bomb. Cheney did it a few year ago on the senate floor when he told Senator Leahy what he could do with himself. Last week Palooka Joe used the f-word to tell his friends to lighten up and drop all that formal "Mr. Vice President" crap. Say what you want about VP Biden, but you can't call him insincere. He's radically honest.
Wikihow explains radical honesty and how to practice it in your everyday life. Included are little anecdotes from real people who have tried it. It can be liberating, but it can also screw stuff up.
I think if we all did this, society as we know it would break down, so I'm agin' it. Little white lies are the Elmer's Glue that holds friendships and families together.
Think I'm exaggerating? Consider this question: "Honey, does this make my butt look fat?"
I would, however, love to see radical honesty practiced by our government. They could start by using the same accounting rules they foist upon private enterprise.
Here are the WikiHow steps to recovery for our mendacious politicians and bureaucrats:
1. Observe yourself lying. This is easy: C-SPAN, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC... There is a virtual liars library at our fingertips. Politicians have left an odoriferous trail of electronic BS a thousand miles long.
2. Think deeply about whether you're really doing anyone a favor by lying. This step won't work. The average politician obviously doesn't think too deeply. If they were to think, they would realize yes, they are doing themselves a favor by lying. It gets them reelected.
3. Confess. This won't work either. A politician never confesses until he's caught like a trapped rat with no way out.
4. Uncensor yourself. This only works for people who are not self-delusional and thus have not fallen for their own BS. Also, today's "gotcha" culture guarantees that no politician this side of VP Joe Biden will throw away the scripts and talking points.
5. Inject the honesty with humor. Ever heard of a funny politician, other than VP Biden? Won't work.
6. Take off the edge. Avoid breaking hearts, crushing dreams, or hurting feelings. Politicians are great at this. How else do you explain their ability to jack stuff up and then get reelected promising to fix it?
7. Brace yourself for return fire. ...if you're a conservative. The press will be firing every cannon. If you're a liberal, Huff and Puff Po and the Daily 'Caus will fire at you for not being liberal enough. If you're VP Biden, nobody will fire at you. Victor Davis Hansen calls it Biden's Law: "If one makes enough gaffes, they soon reach a point that none of them matter."
8. Know where to draw the line. This won't work either. Politicians don't know how to draw lines, unless it's to circumscribe our rights. They draw no lines when it comes to budgets, and they pile lie upon fantasies at a pace that would make Pinocchio blush.
So the only politician actively practicing this now is the Vice President. Take that for what it's worth...
http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Radical-Honesty
http://warskill.blogspot.com/2008/09/thats-just-joe.html
7 comments:
That's a good post,a hilarious and yet spot on fisk Silverfiddle
...you nailed every line of bull as this crop of lyin basturds (sic)is the absolute worst in history.
I don't think they're truthful about anything anytime, yet the loons bought that change crap hook, line and sinker....
Politicians lie?! It's business. Did you know that the WWE wrestlers aren't really beating eachother up either?
I like Bidens foreign policy ideas and I thing he's a real bright guy, but he sticks his feet in his mouth like it's nobodies business.
He asked a person in a wheel-chair to "please stand up" and be recognized at one of his rally speeches.
WWE? That's soap opera for men who don't know what MMA is.
The Veep's gaffs are endearing and make him seem like a regular Joe. I can't say I don't like the guy...
You may be right CP... but then again, I'm not forced to give a share of my labor to the WWE, nor am I stupid enough to do so voluntarily.
Using the excuse that politicians lie is business is like Germans using the excuse "but everybody else was killing Jews".
Numbers does not equal morals... and we ought to demand morals from those we have given the privilege of "leading".
But what do I know? I didn't know they changed their name from WWF.
Cheers!
World Wild Life Federation WWF has that name years before wrestling, and I think they finally gave in a few years ago.
I though Republicans were cynical-realists. Lying isn't easy. When politicians get caught in a lie the press plays the tape of what they said over and over and over again.
I don't have that much of a problem with politicians and lying, not because I've gotten used to it, or that I don't want the truth, but as my pal Nietzsche once wrote:
"The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception."
You might also like to know what Nietzsche had to say about 'truth':
"All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth."
I've never been mad at a politician for lying, but am often dissappointed they didn't work harder to get away with it.
I am cynical realist, but you are much more cynical than I.
This is more trying to make fun of politicians than anything
I like the quote about truth, never more true than today. Reminds me of that one about history being written by the winners.
The little lies that serve no purpose other than avoiding minor embarassment or in trying to make yourself look better are the ones I find I have more problems with their stupidity than their lying. As if there weren't a hundred other people at the airfield in Kosovo when Hilary Clinton got off the plain "amid a stream of incoming gunfire"? I guarantee anyone who thinks she mispoke, that if you are ever shot at...you will never confuse it with not being shot at. Just like her hubby's distinction at "I never had sex with that woman"...yeah right Bill. Personally I could care less who the President is banging in his office, unless of course he's supposed to be meeting the Russian ambassador.
The big lies... well they are unforgivable.
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