A little white lie never killed anybody.....

For today's research, I looked at some of the biggest and most disastrous lies in the history of man-kind. The ramifications of these lies are unmatched. Some of these examples that I am going to share with your are blatant, slap you in the face type of lies, while some of the others fall more along the lines of deceit. A very fine line separates the two of those, so fine that I am considering them the same for the sake of my blog. Here we go...

1. This is one of those that falls more along the lines of deceit, and it just so happens to fit right in with one of our areas of study in English this semester. The Trojan Horse. How the Trojans did not see that one coming is beyond me. After ten years of a brutal war, the Greeks trick the Trojans into thinking that they was thrown in the towel, and give them a giant wooden horse as a piece offering, that's what you do when you surrender, right? No. Greeks hiding in the giant horse come out while the city is asleep, open the gates, and the Greeks continue to kill the entire population of Troy. Foreseeable? I Would think so, but devious nonetheless, and this lie resulted in the devastation of a city and the death of a countless number of men, women, and children.

2.  "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you."

Sure Bill...

The famous Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair is perhaps one of the biggest scandals the presidency has encountered. As noted in the quote posted above, Clinton clearly states that he did not have any type of affair with Lewinsky. Well this turned out to exactly what he said it wasn't, a lie. Because of all this, he was tried on obstruction of justice and perjury, and was lucky he was not impeached. His reputation however, was tarnished forever.

3. The reason I said that the previous example was one of the biggest scandals in the presidency is because the Watergate scandal is the obvious #1...
Some important people close to Nixon had given orders to have crooks break into the democratic national committee and wiretap the building, you know, James Bond type stuff. After the goons got caught, Nixon denied that he had any part of the scheme, but after some recorded conversations that took place in the White House, the supreme court was able to garner enough evidence to convict Nixon. This ruined Nixon's political career, and he decided to "go out on his own terms' (not really). He became the first and only president to resign from the president.

There are many examples of monumental lies like these that have shaped history in one way or another. One thing that I find interesting to think about is that these probably aren't some of the biggest lies, because the biggest and best lies have not been uncovered yet....




"A lie is just a great story that someone ruined with the truth." - Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother

You lying to me? ......Nope......

Earlier this summer I stumbled upon and episode of the fascinating TV show Brain Games dealing entirely with the human tendency to lie. The episode was absolutely fascinating, it focused on many aspect of the human nature to lie, one of which is that it is in fact human nature to lie, quite often, actually. The writers of the show spent a lot of time focusing on the idea that humans are natural liars, and it felt they were making an argument that we should not be blamed for lying. That idea, I do not agree with, but I see where they are coming from.

 This episode had me thinking a lot about humans and their tendencies to lie compulsively. Think about it, how many lies to you hear in a day, in a conversation? I bet you that its more than you think. I'm not going to share any specific examples quite yet, but I know for a fact that I lie quite often, but probably not any more than the average person.

The other day I was teaching a tennis group at where I work, and I was watching this kid who was the littlest piece of...... that I had ever seen. I've never seen anything like it before, blatantly calling shots that were in out and lying about the score to get ahead. I ended up making him run, a lot, and I'm pretty sure he hates me know but I think that's okay if it helps him to become a better person? Knowing 8 year olds it probably made no difference whatsoever, but that's not the point. I noticed that his actions created a domino effect among the group. Kids started lying in the same way that he was to get ahead. I found myself having to correct scores all the time and calling lines, and after being assigned this project in English, I found the main focus of my project: How much do the lies of one person effect the people around them?

Infinitely.

According to a little research I have done, the average human tells 2-3 lies in one ten minute conversation.
I've started to think of a lie as a domino in a never ending fluctuating line of more and more dominoes. One lie leads to another, which leads to another, and another, and another, and so on. Unfortunately the majority of these lies cause harm in the lives of others, sometimes very little problems, but then again a lie could also ruin someones life.

I don't want you to think that this project will have an entirely negative tone to it, because I also plan to look at the other perspective of a lie. Some of the lies people tell actually do have good intentions, like protecting someones feelings from a hurtful truth. The problem with these lies is that they usually don't turn out they way you hoped and the truth comes out anyways, so is lying really ever okay?

This topic is going to lead to an endless number of more and more questions, but that's part of what fascinates me about it so much, because lies are LITERALLY everywhere, and my sources for research has no limitations. Sports, TV, movies, school, friends, enemies, politics, myself, the list goes on......

So whats real?