The departure of trust
How I learned critical thinking
I do not know for sure when I first realized that most adults lie to themselves and others. Lying, I have since learned, is what poisons human societies the most.
Lying is, almost by definition, a refusal to cooperate with others. It condenses a lack of trust and trustworthiness into a single act. It is both a failure of understanding and an unwillingness to be understood. To lie is to recoil from relationship.
Harris, Sam. Lying (p. 30). Four Elephants Press. Kindle Edition.
We seem willing to lie about so many things, running the gamut from petty to world-ending. As Sam Harris notes in his book which I quoted above, our lies are like viruses. They can infect others of our species. Donald Trump’s serial lying has infected nearly half of the United States, although some people have beaten the disease, many others are still in the worst stages: willing to do harm in order to defend the dishonesty.
I learned lying from the Christians of the world. …
