The Lie

Joseph Goebbels said “if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” There is no doubt that Goebbels makes a strong point. There are millions of “factoids” floating around that never get debunked or by the time they are debunked, it is too late (i.e. Iraq). Winston Churchil said “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” I think Churchil is being rather optimistic. He seems to believe that, eventually, the truth is uncovered and embraced. I am little more skeptical.

For instance, the Great Wall cannot be seen from space or, if you define space as where you can see the Great Wall, the wall is not unique. I-95 is much more visible. Most people seem to believe the opposite. Simillarily, lemmings do not jump of cliffs and drown themselves. There is no credible historical proof that Jesus ever lived. Reagan did not bring down the Soviet Union through military spending. Bumblebees are aerodynamic and do not violate any laws of physics. Circumcision is healthy.

Nikolai Lenin believed “a lie told often enough becomes truth”. This is a much darker and more serious claim than Goebbels or Churchil make. Lenin, apparently believing that human perception is reality, states that a falsehood can actually become truth. If history is nothing more than a written narrative, than a change of the narrative will really and actually change history. If everyone were to believe that Luke Skywalker was the first man to land on the moon instead of Neil Armstrong, than it would be so.

Like a Delorean bound Michael J. Fox, people could alter history in an attempt to alter the present. How do we, the powerless, stop this assault? Well, I suppose all we can continue to correct people and annoy them.

Revealing a truth, though, is only treating the symptom. The liars themselves are still out there with an agenda. Alfred Adler said “a lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous”. Indeed. Behind every lie there is a reason for propagating it. Someone out there wanted us to think the Chinese were clever. Another wanted us to believe overpopulation leads to self-destruction. Another wanted us to convert to Christianity and another wanted us to think Reagan’s policies were good. Some guy wanted us to think the world was mystical and some other guy did not want us to mess with our kids’ penises.

They must have gone through a lot of effort to misinform people. Actually, maybe they went though very little effort. Whatever-the-case, it is clear that a time-traveling conspiracy for global domination is out there and they fear the truth. I should sell this idea to Chris Carter.