Now here are some interesting articles:
We were horrified when we caught our 6 year old son lying the other week. His lying was so skilful, it was physical evidence that gave him away, not any intonation or facial nuances. It was brilliant but frightening. My wife asked me how we should handle it. So here’s my dilemma; I was divided as to whether to punish him or congratulate him on his skill(!). I pointed my wife to the reality of today’s ethics, and that the news is full of significant figures in our lives accused of lying or caught telling lies; Lance Armstrong, Winston Peters, Prime Minister Key, ACC managers... It seems the list of public figures accused of lying is endless.
I have become, sadly, experienced and observant in identifying lying and cynical spin. We took our next door neighbour to court to obtain a Restraining Order for continued abusive harassment. Reading her affidavits, we were stunned at her lies, denial, deceit and clever manipulation of events for her own ends. We were totally naïve and unprepared for this and the cynical court experience. And the result? My wife, as the Applicant, had to agree to a Restraining Order on herself so that we could secure the Restraining Order we needed on our neighbour. In other words, all that lying and spinning meant she escaped the exclusive Restraining Order that the judge should have slapped solely on her. Because, lying works.
Everything we laid out in our affidavits (and I mean every incident, every statement, and every paragraph!) was denied, spun or lied about in her opposing affidavits. Her spin apparently put judge Michael Crosbie’s thinking well into the “grey,” leading Crosbie to believe the truth must be in the middle somewhere. Because judges encounter lies, spin and denial all day, every day, I’m sure it never even occurred to Crosbie that we might actually be telling the complete truth. Clearly, for our neighbour, lying worked.
We felt Crosbie’s handling of our case was so shocking - dubious at best - we made a formal deposition to the Judicial Conduct Commission. In our submission, we quoted many of Crosbie’s facetious remarks. We requested access to the tape of the court recording for verification of Crosbie’s comments. Of course, we were denied it. In the Commissioner’s response to us, parts (not all!) of Crosbie’s written reply were contained therein. We were shocked by even the spin in Crosbie’s response, twisting his own remarks and what we had said, for his own end. We felt it made a mockery of the judicial accountability process. Unsurprisingly, the judge wasn’t sanctioned or disciplined. Because, spinning works.
Peter Uiberall, an interpreter in the Nuremberg trials of 1945, noted that Herman Goring believed so strongly in what he testified, coupled with the clever way that he said it, that he probably didn’t have to tell many pure lies.
“I don’t think that Goring had to do much lying in the witness box.” [Peter Uiberall]
For some reason, this quote always reminds me of our gallant Prime Minster, John Key. I’m sure John Key would never admit to lying. He phrases things so cleverly – like Goering - that he probably rarely needs to lie. However, can his phrase “I don’t recall” be construed as lying? Some would say that lack-of-recall is a choice, not a lie. So then, “I don’t recall” becomes spin, not lies. So, he doesn’t have to sack John Banks, or stand down over the Kim Dotcom fiasco.
Let's hark back to his 2008 speech to Public Sector workers. He said there would no redundancies. and asset sales “probably wouldn’t happen.” Here we are today: asset sales are being pushed through and John Key has shed more than 2,500 public sector jobs. And yet he's STILL preferred Prime Minister in the polls. You'll still vote for him. Because, spinning works.
Let's hark back to his 2008 speech to Public Sector workers. He said there would no redundancies. and asset sales “probably wouldn’t happen.” Here we are today: asset sales are being pushed through and John Key has shed more than 2,500 public sector jobs. And yet he's STILL preferred Prime Minister in the polls. You'll still vote for him. Because, spinning works.
And look at the outrageous “distorted recollection” of these two, mysteriously-unnamed, ACC bureaucrats (pictured right). They’re the ones who tried to defame Bronwyn Pullar with false claims of threats and blackmail. ACC CEO Ralph Stewart spun to the nation that “the [managers'] report is accurate.” And that’s after Stewart heard a tape recording of the meeting in question! I suspect that, despite their disgraceful behaviour, those ACC managers will still have their jobs. Oh, perhaps not in the same department, or even within ACC, but I’m sure they’ll turn up like bad pennies in another cushy job somewhere else. Because, lying works.
We’re moving into an age where we collectively accept spin, denial and lack-or-recall so readily, we don’t know truth from lies. In fact, there have been whole books written about “living in the grey.” “Truth” and “lies” are old fashioned terms, you see. “Truth and “lies” are unhelpful extremes, no longer applicable in our modern world. Sadly, I agree – but it doesn’t help my despair. We have all contributed to having arrived at that shit, muddy place.
We’re moving into an age where lies, denial and spin are commonplace, and “telling the truth” (gasp!) has become replaced by the spin doctors as “living in the grey – somewhere in between.” We’re moving into an age where lies, denial and spin WORK. Going back to my leading articles, look at the at the amount of deceit public figures, such as John Key - leader figures, supposedly - have been caught up in recently. They're avoiding the consequences of their actions. As an example, I predict you’ll still vote for Key. On target for his third term, he'll wriggle out of trouble. Because lying and spinning works.
I’m disturbed that, as such behaviour proliferates across our society, good honest people will have no option but to carry a recording device 24 hours a day. Sadly, I can see a time when I will have to recall such recordings myself, when my true version in verbal dealings with ACC, EQC, insurance companies, or any damn corporation, are distorted or denied. Because, without such recordings, lying works.
And here we come back to my son. What’s the life lesson here? That lying catches up with you, like Lance Armstrong? It doesn’t seem to with some people. What could I say to my wife? “But powerful and successful people lie and spin all the time, dear! It’s maybe why they’re powerful and successful – because lying works. Shouldn’t we start our son early, as he has done already?” I’m kidding, of course. So we didn’t encourage my son’s new-found skill. As Bronwyn Pullar would say, we understand ethics, we understand the difference between right and wrong. So we had to punish him.
FURTHER READING:
