Has lying reached epidemic proportions?

[Twilight Hue]

[youtube]Z2W4WKV2fGE[/youtube]
The Early Show: Are We a Nation of Liars? (CBS) - YouTube

Spanning thru the spectrum from politics and corporations all the way through religious and personal venues, it appears lying and misrepresentation have become acceptable norms in society.

While lying has always been pervasive throughout history, has it now gotton to the point where lying has reached epidemic proportions?

 

[Revoltingest]

Lying has always massively been with us.
How do I know? I have a PhD in dishonesty.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I guess the crux of it is to weither all the present lying has created or is creating real harm now or down the road?

I keep thinking of the tale of the little boy who cried wolf. Eventually there will be a reaction over the consistency of protracted lying over a course of time and the value of truth will surface again for a duration.

 

[McBell]

While lying has always been pervasive throughout history, has it now gotton to the point where lying has reached epidemic proportions?

I believe it has.
Hells bells, you are not even allowed to call a liar, a liar anymore.

 

[Sunstone]

While lying has always been pervasive throughout history, has it now gotton to the point where lying has reached epidemic proportions?

Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: It's one of the ways our culture has been changing over the past 60 or so years. Lying has become much more socially acceptable than it was "back in the day". And I imagine the trend will continue because plenty of people benefit from lying to others.

By the way, if you look at Mark Twain's comments about liars and lying, you might get the sense that lying was somewhat less prevalent back in his day. Probably not much, but at least somewhat. And -- maybe more importantly -- people took elaborate measures to avoid gaining a reputation as a liar. Today's liars are heroes to many people. See Rush Limbaugh, Al Sharpton.

 

[Sees]

All that honor stuff is outdated...

More and more people are seemingly shocked when you hold open doors let alone tell the truth when not in your best, immediate interest. I think it is cycling over and over again.

 

[Alceste]

[youtube]Z2W4WKV2fGE[/youtube]
The Early Show: Are We a Nation of Liars? (CBS) - YouTube

Spanning thru the spectrum from politics and corporations all the way through religious and personal venues, it appears lying and misrepresentation have become acceptable norms in society.

While lying has always been pervasive throughout history, has it now gotton to the point where lying has reached epidemic proportions?

Lying is now a multi-billion dollar business, thanks to the work of Ed Bernays and his ideological successors.

If you ever want to see a despicable bad habit explode into the mode du jour, find a way to make money off of it.

 

[cindy_love]

Lying to survive :sorry1:

 

[dust1n]

Epidemic? Like a disease? Like a lie virus?

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

A lot of things have reached 'epidemic proportions' - lying, greed, intolerance, selfishness...

Yes, those problems were always there, but not like now and I will never be convinced otherwise of this.

People tell me that the world was 'always rotten' and I just didn't see it until the past 20 years or so. That is total rubbish and untrue for me.

Those who usually tell me such things, haven't lived for as long as I have...back during the 70's and 80's where yeah, we had our problems, but at least society was able to function much better than now.

Now, these things are socially acceptable, tolerated and even encouraged. Before, they were not.

Like I said, it's pointless trying to change my mind about it, because it's already made up.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Lying is certainly a normal part of our inherent nature, and has been a part of every culture and society to varying degrees. However, it does seem that our current society and culture has elevated lies and mistruths to a pathological degree. In fact, it often seems to me that people are so inundated with lying as a normal part of communication, that many people are suspicious and mistrustful when you express something that is actually sincere and/or true.

I also sometimes wonder how many people even find the difference between truth and falsehood to be significant enough to concern themselves with.

 

[Badran]

I'm not sure if we're comparing the state of lying in societies now to basically all history, or a specific period, but in case it's the first, i'm not sure how i can determine something like that. Lying is definitely epidemic today, to such level that we often lie without thinking of the fact that we are and worse, in many cases believing our own lies. But i have nothing to say based upon that back in history, especially in general, this was less the case.

 

[Thana]

Nah.
I think we're just as bad now as we were then.

The only difference is we have more access to information and knowledge of these cases then we ever did before, More freedom and access to pursue and discover liars then we ever did before.

It's a supply a demand kind of world, We want to see liars (especially politicians) being caught, And that's what we get.

So no, We've always been big fat liars and always will be.

 

[Sunstone]

Near as I can figure, if you live in a relatively smaller, well-knit community, you are likely to face many negative consequences for lying. For instance, the members of the community will quickly inform each other of the fact you are untrustworthy. And risking your good reputation is not a great idea in a small, well-knit community. It can easily translate into loss of job opportunities, loss of marriage opportunities, loss of friends, etc. At least, that's pretty much how it was in my small, rural community when I was growing up.

But in a larger community, the tables are turned. You can actually gain considerable advantages by lying. And your reputation won't always catch up with you.

 

[Badran]

Near as I can figure, if you live in a relatively smaller, well-knit community, you are likely to face many negative consequences for lying. For instance, the members of the community will quickly inform each other of the fact you are untrustworthy. And risking your good reputation is not a great idea in a small, well-knit community. It can easily translate into loss of job opportunities, loss of marriage opportunities, loss of friends, etc. At least, that's pretty much how it was in my small, rural community when I was growing up.

But in a larger community, the tables are turned. You can actually gain considerable advantages by lying. And your reputation won't always catch up with you.

That's actually a pretty good point, and seems to make sense. It's about the only thought i had in mind, only slightly differently. What i had in mind was that with increased complexity, more opportunities for lies could be present.

But i wasn't too sure of how solid that would be in practice, in terms of how it would apply to all history, if that's what the OP was talking about. Meaning, how much difference would it make putting in mind that other influences might have been present before and are less so now, or not present at all, and that i'm just not thinking of them.

For example, societies with radically differing governing laws, or others with none, completely different belief systems, and in some cases primitive cultures where people needed to kill for food. It seemed too wide for me to make a guess about how lying worked there. Though i suppose if one considers enough relevant aspects, a decent guess could be made.

 

[oldbadger]

Yes, lying is and always has been common. It's not just governments.....

As an infant I watched my Mum and Dad being 'gushingly nice' to people who they despised....... even as a 5 year old I didn't understand that.

At about that time distant relatives rolled up on our doorstep 'out of the blue' one afternoon with a huge silver tea service and asked my parents if they had one, they said 'Oh no... isn't that lovely'. I figured that they had just forgotten the big silver tea set in the dining room cupboard and so pulled out a couple of big bits and took 'em in to lounge to show everybody. Did I ever get into trouble over that......

As I became a more and more successful commercial detective, focused on fact-discovery, I found out that my entire family history was/is riddled with lies. I'm a half-cup full sort of person, and have to admit that in a more honest society I would have been a failure, because the only thing I was ever much good at was catching commercial thieves and discovering facts to refute lies.

I wish I had been able to paint beautiful pictures for a living, but the truth is, I had to work in muck....... there's money in muck!

 

[LuisDantas]

I seem to remember that Nixon was impeashed under accusations of, among other things, lying to the American public.

By contrast, we know for a fact that both Reagan and Oliver North lied to cover arguably much worse crimes, yet both became popular public figures perhaps because of that.

I do not know what changed exactly in the meantime, but I sure don't like it, and I suspect it has something to do with hurt pride and a failure to deal with it in a healthy way.

 

[McBell]

I seem to remember that Nixon was impeashed under accusations of, among other things, lying to the American public.

By contrast, we know for a fact that both Reagan and Oliver North lied to cover arguably much worse crimes, yet both became popular public figures perhaps because of that.

I do not know what changed exactly in the meantime, but I sure don't like it, and I suspect it has something to do with hurt pride and a failure to deal with it in a healthy way.

Seems to me it depends upon how many people agree with the lie and how many disagree with it.
Or perhaps more specifically, how many do and do not care about a particular lie being told.

 

[Sunstone]

It seems to me that a greater tolerance for lying and liars must go hand in hand with less respect for truths and truthful folks.

I think part of the decline could owe to the knee-jerk respect many childish Americans give the wealthy combined with so many people getting paid well to lie. If I can recall, Rush Limbaugh has made over 20 million some years. In a society in which a relatively large number of people respect the wealthy regardless of their ethics, their character, or even their arrest record, the fact that some people get very wealthy by lying isn't going to escape everyone.

 

[Alceste]

I seem to remember that Nixon was impeashed under accusations of, among other things, lying to the American public.

By contrast, we know for a fact that both Reagan and Oliver North lied to cover arguably much worse crimes, yet both became popular public figures perhaps because of that.

I do not know what changed exactly in the meantime, but I sure don't like it, and I suspect it has something to do with hurt pride and a failure to deal with it in a healthy way.

I think it has to do with the exponential growth of the PR industry. What was once a despicable character flaw is now a well-respected profession, with multi-million dollar salaries, university degrees and numerous industry publications celebrating the latest innovations in lying.

Used to be that a snake oil salesman's lies would come up against a natural limit - he actually had to physically fill up bottles to sell. Now that lying itself is the snake oil salesman's product, there is literally no limit to the possibilities - or the profits. He isn't even limited by how fast he can flap his own lips. He can just buy a 24 hour TV news network and tell his employees what to say.