Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie. ―Russian Proverb
Are you already nodding in agreement and admiring the wisdom of the words above? Most of you just kissed yourselves with yet another lie.
When asked, we will all confidently proclaim we want to know the truth “even if it hurts”. We like to think we’re strong and brave like that. However, it’s yet another case of self-delusion.
There is no objective reality. As long as you don’t find out about a lie, it becomes your reality and to you, it’s just as real as the truth itself. We don’t really want to know the truth, especially when it hurts. We just know from experience that falling hurts more than being on the ground in the first place, so we prefer finding the ugly truth out sooner rather than later.
We watch the Truman Show and empathize with the poor fellow. We watch The Matrix and concur with Neo’s decision to go for the red pill. Who wouldn’t? Once start suspecting you’ve been lied to, the ground under your feet starts being shaky. You expect the worst, and need to know the truth otherwise you are slowly driven to insanity. However, this has little to do with truth and a lot to do with your perception of it. Even if you’re fully aware of reality, you might start suspecting you’ve been lied to and it will feel exactly the same, especially if you’re generally of distrustful nature.
But what if we never found out about the truth? What if we spent our entire lives believing a sweet convincing lie instead of an unpleasant truth, without ever suspecting we’ve been lied to? What’s the difference between such a lie and the truth, as far as we’re concerned?
I don’t care much about the truth anymore. But if someone wants to lie to me, it better be a pretty damn good lie, one that I will never suspect or find out about. If it walks like a truth and quacks like a truth, well…