LIE AND SOCIETY

LIE AND SOCIETY

Nildo Viana

The lie is something other than illusion. The illusory everyday representations, like any other form of illusory consciousness, expresses the situation of individuals who think that reality is what it is not. Ideology, as wishful thinking system creates a whole set of systematic ideas reversing reality, as the scientist who believes that the ideas is the product of the brain, as if this organ produce something for yourself. When this scientist says this, he demonstrates possess an illusory, false thinking, but if he really believes this, it is not lie. The lie is a distortion of reality carried out deliberately, intentionally, by the individual who knows what it claims is false. In the case of misleading representations, individuals believe in his speech and in the case of lying, they know it is false.

Many should consider lie a rare phenomenon, unlike the illusory representations that would be commonplace. However, the lie is more common than it may seem at first glance. The deliberate and conscious distortion of reality is a social phenomenon that is virtually absent in the simpler societies, comes up with the class societies, and becomes something common and widespread in capitalist society.

People lie because it is in your best interest. The interest is the manifestation aware of certain needs (whether basic or superfluous, considered well for some and not for others, etc.). Thus, people often lie to avoid being harmed or to get some advantage. There are two ways to lie escaping it, which is selfless and civilized. If we understand class society, let us know that the capitalist class has no interest in the verity, she should hide the truth about the exploitation and domination, about the real role of the state, etc. Thus, the privileged classes refuse the truth and so it is not a dominant value in modern society, is a marginalized value. It is clear that the discursive level, almost all respect and appreciate the vertity, but that's just a lie. Some try to rationalize this by relativism. Relativism is a way to turn a lie into verity.

The social competition is one of the pillars of the capitalist sociability and lying is one of the most used weapons to win the competition and take the win, advantage, wealth, power, status, fame, success. A competitive society is a strong incentive for the widespread lie. Similarly, the lie out of fear of being harmed is a strong incentive for its realization. Obviously, people who lie to be competitive element of his mentality, belonging usually to privileged social class. The bourgeois mentality, competitive, has in one way or another, varying in intensity and degree, influencing everyone, but there are cases where this is something prevalent and in such cases the lie is faithful companion of every hour. In the case of underprivileged class, fear of being harmed is the main incentive element lies, having a defensive role. After all, in front of superiors, employers, teachers, etc., in different situations and in a relationship of power, so lying is a way of defending the oppressors, exploiters, dominators.

There are also cases of individuals who lie without great need. Some are compulsive liars, but this is the case of people with mental imbalance. As well as the kleptomaniac steals without reason, many lie without revealing, in both cases, it is problems whose origin is in the psychic universe and can only be understood through psychoanalysis to reassemble its historical process of life in a society of destructive human beings.

In capitalist society, individuals are constrained to lie and it comes with the very process of socialization of children. They are socialized to lie, even when parents deny and fight the lies of children. A child who knows that parents punish if she tells lies can even say that did not lie despite having lied. It is a lie about the lie. If the child is punished for spilling milk in the kitchen and it occurs again and no one saw, when asked if she was she, will certainly say "no", ie lie. If she does not lie, it will suffer the punishment. If she wants to skip class, you can make up the school dismissed the same. This is a lie that brings you an edge.

This socialization process ends up playing the rest of life, for all the time individuals must lie to avoid being harmed or to get some advantage. The student or employee to mind the teacher or boss saying it was not in school or company for which he was ill so I could not say it is because of a football game or even dismay. A competition or selection process with the interview, the individual know you can not say everything that considers truth and so mind to please or deceive the bank, can not admit that has no interests, readings, experiences that should have to assume the position or vacancy .

In the scientific sphere, lying is also widespread, not only in social relations between scientists and institutions, but also in their own scientific production, products, are books, class, theses, etc. Plagiarism is one of the clearest ways to lie, since an individual mind saying that what others have written was made by him. It is easy to multiply examples: use of false data, using others' ideas without putting the source, defense of ideas and authors that are in evidence despite knowing it is wrong, etc. In the religious sphere, the lie is also quite common and just turn the television on certain channels that will be easy to see resounding religious lies aimed at deceiving others and make money from it. In the legal sphere, it is also practiced constantly. The film The Liar (Tom Shadyac, USA, 1997) is quite interesting to see that and how the truth is left out thanks to professional interests (and financial) attorney.

The lie is also in the family, and the child is not the only liar, because parents are teaching the lie not only for generating the constraint to do so, but also because in many cases, give the example all the time. In bureaucratic organizations, with its system of control and domination, lying is common. The world of institutional policy is where the lie reigns supreme. The electoral discourse is a liar speech by nature. In the stories in comics Li’l Abner, there is a story in which there comes a Bald Eagle in the United States and no one can lie in front of her and because of this the headline in the papers are: "the speeches of politicians canceled", "lawyers spend searching more useful work. "That's the honest truth.

These lie demonstrations are widespread and common, as we have said. But there are two ways of lying that do not have the same motivations. The altruistic lie not is that performed for the individual to escape a situation which will be harmed or to take advantage, but to help others, keep them from sad or suffering. When a single mother tells the child that the father died, despite having just abandoned both, you are just saving the child from suffering to know it was abandoned, being an altruistic lie. Another common form of lie and is not harmful civilized lie, in which a person, out of politeness and civility, does not say what you really think, as in the case of someone who asks about your clothes, beauty, intelligence or any other attribute, When asked person and, even considering that clothing, for example, it is ugly, but it does not assert otherwise. And in case anyone asks how are you doing and she says "yeah", however bad it is. These mild forms of lie end up serving for some people justify and legitimize the lies in general. But make these forms equivalents lie is just telling a lie.

Apart from these forms, there is also the social lie. This is a lie shared and reproduced by various individuals, groups, collectives or even an entire society. This is the case of dictatorial regimes where lie must be said and repeated to justify (from Nazism to Stalinism and all other dictatorial regimes), born in the state power and reproducing within the population, either by fear, interest or share the dominant ideas of the time. This may also occur because of shame or trauma, as can be seen in the film Das Schreckliche Mädchen (A City Without a Past, Michael Verhoeven, German, 1990) in which people's involvement with Nazism is replaced by the lie that it would be only the former mayor the only one involved with the Third Reich. There are also institutional lies in which to maintain power, bureaucracy ends up creating lies about dissident individuals or even groups, to keep intact the institutional image. The group lie, either circle of corrupt politicians, whether of young people who were responsible for a death, as in American films trivial, is also common and the reason is to avoid the discovery and consequences.

However, it is not through the moralism that can solve this issue. Morality teaches that lying is "wrong" or some religious may say it is "of the devil" or "sin". Thus, any lie is condemned and whosoever mind, regardless of the context of their situation in it, among other determinations are abolished and in its place appears the conviction. The selfless and civilized lie become so reprehensible as to obtain benefits or to maintain power. The lie for fear of being harmed an individual of the exploited classes and unable to defend himself becomes equivalent of that made by a corrupt afraid of his punishment or a murderer for fear of arrest. Morality, as a practice of judging and condemning individuals from a set of standards that form an abstract canon, is always decontextualized and is characterized by an abstract normativism. He therefore is unable to solve the problem lies, because only judges and condemns, out of context.

Overcoming widespread lie presupposes overcoming the society that generates your need. Capitalist society is a society founded on a lie because its essential characteristics. It is only a radical transformation of social relations, abolishing the competitive processes, exploitation, bureaucracy, mercantilization, bourgeois mentality, etc. is that lying can stop being a widespread social phenomenon. A self-managed society, or "communist" (as was worn by ideologies and lies disseminated in our society), is a society based on verity. The struggle for social self-management is also a struggle of truth against lies and against a society that lives on lies.

Article originally published in: http://redelp.net/revistas/index.php/rpo/article/view/3viana4/103