Don't lie for me Argentina

Though you'd think it given the title, this entry has nothing to do with Argentina. I apologize if I misled you. Of course, maybe I don't have to apologize. Because I came across this great article today, Natural Born-Liars, that argues that human beings may just be naturally born to lie and mislead. So there...it isn't just a characteristic of the Bush administration!

No, really, the article is fascinating, and an example of what I love about the magazine Scientific American Mind (which is where the article is from). They handle science in a very approachable way for people, like myself, who got C's and D's in science all throughout high school. Damn that Mr. Hall and his meteorology lectures! And I still don't understand jet streams.

It's a great read, especially given our culture of spin, truth-twisting, and bending facts to fit our agenda. And I'm sure I'm as guilty as anyone else. As Mark Twain said: "Everybody lies...every day, every hour, awake, asleep, in his dreams, in his joy, in his mourning. If he keeps his tongue still, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his attitude will convey deception." Yikes!

This article got me thinking...we really do live in a culture of mass deception, and it starts by fooling ourselves before we can fool others. This article suggests we hide the truth from ourselves often times without realizing it, so that we can lie without knowing that we are lying.

Now I'm not going to get all "Matrix" on you. But I did find it ironic that right after reading this, I picked up a copy of Arundhati Roy's An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire. In it, she talks about the widespread deception of U.S. media and U.S. politicians, especially the current Administration and its "War on Terror." Roy argues that we've been duped by a "propaganda machine" into believing in the righteousness of the War on Terror, and the war and occupation in Iraq. Here's her thoughts:

"At the end of it all, it remains to be said that dictators like Saddam Hussein, and all the other despots in Central Asian republics, in Africa, and Latin America, many of them installed, supported and financed by the U.S. government, are a menace to their own people. Other than strengthening the hand of civil society (instead of weakening it as has been done in the case of Iraq), there is no easy, pristine way of dealing with them. (It's odd how those who dismiss the peace movement as utopian don't hesitate to proffer the most absurdly dreamy reasons for going to war: To stamp out terrorism, install democracy, eliminate fascism, and most interestingly, to 'rid the world of evil-doers.')

"Regardless of what the propaganda machine tells us, these tin-pot dictators are not the greatest threat to the world. The real and pressing danger, the greatest threat of all, is the locomotive force that drives the political engine of the U.S. government, currently piloted by George W. Bush. Bush-bashing is fun, because he makes such an easy, sumptuous target. It's true that he is a dangerous, almost suicidal pilot, but the machine he handles is far more dangerous than the man himself."

So all of this is swirling in my brain when I pop into my DVD player one of the best documentaries I've seen, The Corporation, which looks at how corporations and big business enforce a culture of lies and misinformation (the 'machine' that Roy talks about in her book). I could write a book on how this documentary moved me and made me think about my own priorities - but this movie is chilling, if not for the way it chronicles the evolution of the corporation from obscure entity during the post-Civil War era, to an economic beast that now has all the rights of an individual person. There's one particular scene involving the chemical company Monsanto, and the rBGH hormone it produced for farmers to give to their cattle. The transcript is available here, but suffice it to say, I'm only drinking organic milk from now on.

Anyway, check out the lying article, check out Arundhati's book, and most of all, check out The Corporation. They all affirm what I think we all know - that lying makes the world go around.

And on that note, I have an eleven inch penis.

No, really, I don't. But if I can just convince myself, maybe no one will know the difference...