It’s hard to choose the subject for the day’s column. It’s always fun to shine lights through the shadowy lies that take form around us. The other side has gone beyond telling the good, solid lies that are, at least, semi-impervious to truthful analysis. Now, throngs of ambitious liars lie blatantly, desperate to move into the big money and generally falling short.
It’s more work, and less fun, to say, “Listen, let’s stop fooling around. Of course there are lots of pseudo-intellectual lies told by pseudo-intellectual liars. There always have been. Always will be. It’s more important for us to move our soul closer to God than to mock and malign ridiculous lies and the people who tell them.”
Most of us go through a stage where we enjoy making fun of liars. We should remember that there’s a similarity between making fun of liars and going on a witch hunt. Damage can be done to those who don’t deserve it. A lot of people who pass on popular lies are not, basically, liars. They just aren’t bright enough to know that they’ve been bamboozled.
Focusing on lies may be a dangerous doorway to our own temptation. “Those lies are so stupid that I can see right through them. Those liars are stupid. I could tell lots better lies than they can. Even better, I can see how to make money from my lies.” Thinking too much about lies may tempt us to tell them. “I think I’ll tell a lie, just to see what happens.” Hopefully, we won’t let ourselves think too much about coming up with a “better class of lies”, and thereby fall inextricably into the horde of lost souls.
The Global Warming Lies are a perfect example of the many other lies on which many people base their careers. Those who knowingly pass on such lies are a sad, sorry lot. Watching one of them is similar to seeing a very inebriated person leaving a bar and getting into a car that’s many miles from where he’s going. There’s a good chance he won’t be getting there in good health. It doesn’t do any good to laugh, point, and call him names.
Neither does it do any good to laugh at someone whose soul is on a downward path paved with lies. It will do more good to focus on saving our own soul rather than feel superior to those who are headed for something far worse than mere bleakness.
