Wired to Lie

Did you know…

that “I cannot tell a lie” is a lie!

It’s Presidents Day in the US. The honorees: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

When George was a kid, he supposedly chopped down his mother’s favorite cherry tree and later confessed, when confronted, with the famous “I cannot tell a lie” line. Come to find out, a preacher turned bookseller concocted the tale after George died.

Next up: Lincoln…aka Honest Abe. Verifiable historical accounts attest to the fact that he came by his nickname honestly! I feel better.

Our obsession with the virtues of honesty, integrity and truth goes way back.

But…

Research by social psychologists shows that we lie often and as easily as we breathe or sweat! It comes with being human.*

The dilemma: we espouse honesty but we’re wired to lie!

I’ve done major re-wiring to empower my life with the current of truth. But if I said I tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth all the time, no matter what…I would be lying.

So, in honor of Washington’s legend and Lincoln’s legacy I am going to declare this Presidents Day a lie-free day. I will not tell a lie…to myself, or anyone else. No socially nice or socially expedient lies, no little white lies, no lies of convenience or lies of omission, no lies of exaggeration or distortion…nuttin’ but the Truth.

Care to join me?

*Dr. David Smith, philosophy professor, at the University of New England and author of Why We Lie: the Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind.