Human beings are liars. We all lie. Really. You do it. I do it. We all lie. Maybe not everyday, maybe not often, but we all lie. Maybe you only tell ‘Forrest Gump’ lies (“Mama said it was just a little white lie, so it wasn’t hurting nobody.”) Maybe you tell big fish stories with grand hyperbole (“That bear was bigger than my house”). Maybe you find passages of historical documents to pull out of context and twist to suit your agenda. Maybe you just hope no one will notice.

Fair enough. We all do it. But where does it cease to be ok? when? How far can we go with our lies? If we believe what we are saying is truth, does that make it truth? No. But, I suppose, it could pass for an insanity plea, if needed.

Funny that the internet has broadened our capacity to gather information and yet it has also presented the opportunity for exaggerated falsehoods to become truths for the masses. I remember when the saying “if it’s on TV then it must be true” became such a clichéd joke we used it to describe everything we heard from the media. The new media must be exempt.

Shame people don’t think for themselves, isn’t it? It’s easier to believe that others have done the legwork and researched their words. We don’t want to learn anything new, we want the Cliff’s Notes version of life (“Just tell me the point so I can get back to Farmville.”)

I’m not sure that if and when the thinkers call out the liars with proof of their lies it even matters now. Once it’s out there, it’s out there.

All this reminds me of what the Rockman from Nilsson’s The Point said to Oblio: “You gotta open your mind as well as your eyes. You believe what you want to believe and you hear what you want to hear, dig?”