The essence of being human is to see the world other than it really is — out of self interest.

Whether one calls this creativity or genius or mental illness; whether one calls this self-delusion or religion; whether one calls this social skills or pure lies – it all springs from the one core tendancy that makes a human a human; all humans are born liars, from head to toe.

One of the very first things a parent teaches their child is how to lie. Of course the parent may say or think that they are teaching their child “respect” or “how to get along in the world” or “social skills” or “politeness” or whatever they wish to call it; but what they are teaching their child is how to lie, both to themselves and to others, so that they can survive life.

If you think long and hard about it; if you ponder all forms of human thought and all human languages; if you ponder all human institutions such as art, business, finance, government, politics, religion — all of it, you will see that the whole kit and kaboodle is based upon layer upon layer of dishonesty. We are so full of dishonesty, that nearly all of us, are blinded by it.

The very word honesty means nothing anymore. We can all see, that “honesty” is the art of successful lying. Most of the “leaders” of the human race are so good at it, that they can talk to ten groups of people before lunch, and tell them all a different version of things and get away with it. In short, the more power a person has, the bigger the bald faced lies they can get away with, and still calim to be “honest”.

Even the phrase “complete honesty” is totally corrupted from four-thousand years of human deception. It would be better to invent an entirely new word, and to define that word anew; “chonesty” is as good a new word as any.

It is often said by people who haven’t spent decades thinking about the human problem of “honesty”, that everyone has an opinion, so there can really be no one “honesty”. So let’s examine that for a minute.

What is the one characteristic that is part of nearly everything ever said by a human? Why self-interest of course. We all lie
out of self-interest, and then dress it up as “honesty” as best we can, so that we can get away with it.

So what if a person, flawed human like everyone else, were to disclose their self-interest as part of any significant conversation or form of expression? Why, they would be approaching “chonesty” then. Even if they couldn’t help but put themselves in the best possible light or self-gain, if they could manage to disclose their self-interest at the same time, then the entire hypnotic spell of dishonesty  / honesty / self-deception / lying would be broken.

Yep, that’s all it takes. I can tell you this plainly, as the author of this little essay is a high-functioning autistic. My understanding of how to lie is nearly non-existent; I lack those brain circuits. I walk around pretty close to “completely honest” whether I wish to be or not.

When I first started explaining to people about the one thing that has created the endless misery and suffering that has dogged the human race, and it’s one simple cure, everybody shook their heads and clucked wisely. “No, you can’t eliminate all lying from people, it’s not possible. Life would be impossible. Let’s say that I choose to be completely honesty. I’ll wind up hurting someone’s feelings, or upsetting my boss. What you call lying is in fact necessary for life.”

Well the major problem, is that nobody wants to be confronted by their own lies, so that means they have to give everyone else a free pass; this includes the people who are stealing everyone blind, poisoning the environment, and building weapons of mass destruction, to name just a few.

For even a small number of people to become chonest, they would need to take care of each other like a form of family; they would need to become their own support systems; doing business with each other, careing for each other.

Well that could be done.

So lets do it. By not giving ourselves a free pass to lie at will, we will create a back pressure in society. The growing number of chonest people will make everyone else look bad. People don’t want to look bad, so they will start to change.

The day will come, when the most accurate, the most earnest, the most useful person, will be the most admired, not those who steal from the weak with their sly words.

Let’s make it so!

Kevin