The Pure and Simple Truth

Oscar Wilde once said, "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple." Is that what makes lying so appealing? Is it the act of misleading someone to protect them, or is it the thrill of getting away with lying?

When we are young we are taught that lying is wrong, that telling a fib will earn us a first class ticket to hell, complete with free headphones for the in-flight movie (probably The passion of The Christ) and a bag of peanuts you spill on the floor.

But aside from the religious ramifications, what's wrong with telling a little white lie? Most of us lie because we are trying to impress the people around us, maybe that really cute girl or guy that sits in front of you in sociology class.

Others lie for the thrill. They spin yarns about their lives to make their mundane existence seem more interesting than it really is or to see how many different people they can lie to before it catches up with them.

Some people lie because they are just bored with telling the truth in general. Maybe you have a disfiguring scar on your arm and are constantly asked "what happened." After telling 50 other people the truth that week, you decide to make something up, like you got attacked by a bear.

These are usually people you don't know and will more than likely never see again anyway so it doesn't really matter. If you get to know them better or they happen to know one of your friends, they may find out that you really did it while you were trying to retrieve a soda from an uncooperative machine. But the odds of that happening are low enough that you try anyway.

Some of us lie because telling the truth will reveal that we are actually human, that we have flaws, that we are not as perfect was we would like to be. We lie to our families and our friends, never letting them know that we have made a mistake because we fear the reaction we will receive when we tell them. We lie to protect people from the disappointing truth about our lives. As children we lie about getting a bad grade on a paper because we don't want to disappoint our parents. As adults we lie to our significant others because we dont want them to know that we have been unfaithful.

Everyone says they want the truth, but no one is ever happy when they hear it. If President Bush gave a speech telling America everything they claim to want to know, no one would be happy. Do you really want to know that we are experimenting on captured terrorists to create an army of super-soldiers? Of course not, you would rather believe that the terrorists are being "interrogated" for information that will protect you.

Most of us are happier being in the dark than seeing the world and the people around us for what they really are in the light. Sometimes the truth is a harder pill to swallow than the lie.