Lying is convenient and lazy. Lying is a short term optimization that occludes or procrastinates long term consequences. We lie to escape reality. We lie to cover the truth and set new norms. The reality, though, is that deceit is incredibly dangerous to our moral conscious – an abstract sphere of our soul that ages in parallel to our human bodies.
When we lie, or commit wrongdoings, our “soul” takes a hit. We have a new worry sink into the backs of our brains. We bury it. But it is still there. Waiting. Looming in the darkness until one day…as our mind wanders…before bed, in the shower, before an exam, etc. we catch a sniff. We remember the foul smell of our soul.
And we remember that lies compound over time. We remember that one lie leads to another and that every time we accept the lie, we are further damaging our soul.
I think the most common case of lying is in fact the most nuanced.
Before we lie to anyone else, we lie to ourselves.
We tell ourselves we are on the right path when in the reality we know we are not. We know we should be doing other things but instead we stay the course because it is more convenient and it would take a lot of work for us to confront the truth.
Once you lie to yourself once, things tend to get out of control.
We lie to ourselves to sleep better tonight, but do not realize that it damages us long term.
Sometimes we actually have to make the really hard decisions up front, before they get really really unfortunately hard in the future. What is hard for “present self” to imagine is that “harder version of the future,” so we lie to ourselves in the present to cover up.
This is a fairly abstract thought but one…I think…that rings true with some consistency throughout my life.
The easy path is to lie.
The hard path is to face the truth head on and squish it.
The latter is a long term bet, the former is a short term bet.
I want to be a long term player.
Also published on Medium.