Daily Archives: October 10, 2008

A Lie and a Truth

One of the cruelest things you can do is tell a lie and a truth at the same time. A deliberate mixture of truth and lies is hard to separate. People tend to either swallow it whole, or reject it all outright. The acceptors point to the truth and ignore the lie. The rejectors point to the lie and reject the truth. Neither of them will agree with each other. If it’s your guy, or the other guy, then you’ll take up your respective side without much thought for segregating the truth and the lie. Each side thinks the other side looks silly. They are both right.

The quest for knowledge involves not looking at systems always as whole systems. Systems of thought, even when they appear to have a keystone, are often separable into truths, lies, falsehoods, bullshit, and various states in-between. It’s your job to figure out what’s what, not to reject or accept outright.