Transparency

It was brought to my attention that my previous post on Obama's birth certificate was well, off.

Ok, whether the birth form exists or not what I was driving at was the need for TRANSPARENCY. I think TRANSPARENCY is the single most important tenant of governing, parenting, managing, and successful interpersonal relationships. We are a nation of lairs. Yes, you heard me. I firmly believe that we as a culture would much rather be lied to, then complain we are being lied to, but secretly rejoice that we are being lied to, because confronting and processing and acting on the truth is hard work and at the end of the day, most human beings are more comfortable being lied to and being allowed to wallow in their innate laziness. (WOW I am really being my bitchy best today; now see that is transparent and not so hard!)

My point in my previous post was the election committee or the DNC has guidelines. Show the proof that they rules that Obama met the the guidelines. People do not fundamentally believe anything anyone says, because, while we may appreciate that we are being lied to, we also do not like it. We live in a society where we believe we do not trust what is going one, because every time we turn around, we are shown that people would rather lie and conceal. Think of all the books out there about espionage and government and political intrigue. Its its own damn genre and like I always say, "real life is stranger than fiction."

So when Jack Nicholson goes into this rant, as much as we all think we are supposed to believe that he is a self righteous ego maniac, and that he is- is beside the point, he is right. We cannot handle the truth. We think we can, but we can't. We do not like thinking about the fact that we have kids on a line, drawn on some map, with an M-16, ready to take out another kid cuz our governments are locked in some high school style pissing contest. We do not like to think about the fact that we through our inactions or our blind eyes, we create situations where men like Jessup can practice their own brand of honesty and truth. Furthermore, because confronting our own culpability within those actions is positively intolerable. I am not judging the need for rules or custom or order with in the Corp. I am merely saying we as lazy lie loving cultural slugs, do not like to think that we benefit from these types of loops. We do not like to admit that if we fully supported a world that believed in transparency above our ego comforts, this type of loop might look different. People like Jessup, while perhaps important on a certain level, can run amuck and they run amuck through the cultural support of a less than transparent world.





Annie's shock in Bull Durham is palatable when Crash tells her exactly what he believes in. She was expecting bullshit. I generally expect bullshit, every time someone opens their mouth. Be it the the clergy person, the used salesman, my doctor, whoever, I always think, mmm, is this a kernel of truth moment or am I getting a line of shit. I generally settle on the fact that the person is giving me what they want me to believe in order to get me to do what they want me to do and that is a far cry from the truth. We are a culture that thrives on management via manipulation.

When the truth is truly a huge motivator. My kids work best and feel the most secure when I give them the truth. The truth folks need not be a long winded trietse on astrophysics. Case in point.

E and I are in the car, I am trying to get through some traffic and had been thinking about something I was writing about and E was asking all sorts of questions and I was half answering him and he kept at it and it was getting annoying and the traffic was annoying also. Finally E demands, "Mom, answer my questions."

So I had him repeat his question, which was really simple. I answered it and he was quiet. He knew I was not paying attention and he knew I was giving him half assed replies and so he kept crowing, more and more loudly.

So next time you are tempted to be half truthful or blow someone off with a half truth, or make the choice that they can't handle the truth, why not try the truth and transparency... most people won't believe you anyway.