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Originally Posted by ratbastid
Yes, yes, yes.
We tell ourselves stories to be able to live with and justify and explain away how ordinary and mundane our lives are, how far they are from the dreams we had as children. We blame our ordinariness on everything but us; we have excuses and reasons and justifications for everything. Fundamentally, that's the lie that telling the truth about will set us free.
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I agree with everything you said except "Fundamentally, that's the lie that telling the truth about will set us free."
I'm not sure if I agree with you on this, as I'm not really certain what being "set free" entails. I would find it absolutlely incredible if someone lived their lives in accordance with the "complete truth." I believe that conciousness practically requires humans to lie to themselves on one level or another - otherwise, people in general may find life is far to bleak and hopeless.
On the other hand, I don't believe that lying to yourself is necessarily a bad thing, either - as long as you stay within the realm of contructive lies. I firmly stand behind the "fake it 'till you make it" philosophy, and generally if you live the life of the person you want to be you'll eventually become that person - or, more accurately, you'll be faking it so long and so well there will be no difference between the facade you put up and who you actually are, providing that you stay within reason...
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Originally Posted by sapiens
I guess I'm thinking of lying less in terms of how do we stop lying personally and more in terms of where does lying originate.
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I don't necessarily think that we
should stop lying to ourselves. Although it is a lie, I believe that it makes life more... livable.
As far as where lying originates, I believe that there are two major contributors - society as a whole, and consciousness itself.
I believe that in nearly any society - but especially in America - the "average" person is nowhere near where they percieve average to be. Additionally, I don't think that the vast majority of people want to be average. Ironically enough, being part of the vast majority is what
makes them average. In either case, it is much easier to lie to yourself about your current situation than actually change it. Very seldom with a population as a whole go any other direction other than the path of least resistance until an outside force steps in.