Matt Self
9/23/06
Second Test Essay
The Truth about Lies
The video “The Truth about Lies” made me more conscious of the reasons that all people have for lying. I had never given much thought to why I lie, and so I never made the deep-rooted connection between lying and the human condition. The video illustrated the aspect of anxiety in the Human Condition through using real examples of political figures in history lying to save themselves. People become paranoid that something bad will happen to them, and they begin to lie in order to protect themselves and their position. Their minds focus on the immediate consequences and what they can do to avoid more problems, rather than the long-term consequences and what is best for everyone.

Another exemplified point was that of our longing for happiness. Before watching “The Truth about Lies,” I had been aware of this desire, but I didn't realize how strongly people want happiness and what they might do to achieve it. All people want to be content in life, and they will look at things optimistically in order to believe that their world is good and that their situation is better than reality. Most of the time, this self-delusion occurs subconsciously and people don’t realize it until the new beliefs already have a firm grip on their lives.

Desire for happiness goes along with ignorance because the less we know, the less immediate problems we have, and therefore the happier we are. However, we all have to face reality at some time, and if I am exceedingly ignorant at that time, I’ll be left without a chair when the music stops. We are ignorant from birth, but sometimes we don’t want the full truth so we have less on our minds. People can ignore facts on purpose so that they won’t get into trouble when things do blow up. The problem is that we form this “ignorance” through self-deception and what we tell ourselves about the world.

Another inevitable result of lying and part of the human condition is isolation, when a person distances his/herself from others. When people lie, they hurt their relationships by losing others’ trust. I build the walls between myself and others higher and higher with each lie. When the politicians lied in the video, they would later be singled out after everything came out to the public. People blamed the person in charge and certainly no longer trusted him, with good reason.

“The Truth about Lies” helped explain and illustrate these aspects of the human condition that I didn't understand previously. I now recognize more fully how these parts of me manifest themselves in my everyday life through my actions and words. After this reflection, it should be easier to control how I act as a result of these characteristics, or at least I hope so.

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