by Lane Trawick

Created on: April 17, 2008

Why do people lie? I'm sure there are as many reasons as there are people who do it. I know there's nothing new under the sun - "lying," included. It's not that I haven't seen or experienced someone's choice to do so; it's just that when I've thought I've seen the most blatant and incredulous acts of deceit possible, I see worse.

Since the beginning of time, human nature has struggled with the temptation to deceive in attempts to avoid the truth and its expected undesirable results. While avoidance of some kind of unpleasant consequence was an original motivation, it seems that advancement of an agenda is just as much, if not more, of a motivation. With situational ethics, "the end justifying the means" philosophy has permeated the fabric of our culture. From pastors to politicians, lying has become a way of life for some. From honorable professions to obscure stations, lying has become as common as the cold.

Lying has been downgraded by the self-serving who redefine it with terms such as "perspective" and "spin." Entire careers are built on the ability to "spin" public attention toward or away from curtain facts, details, and issues. Since the "no truth; only perspective" philosophy has been indoctrinated into our social consciousness, "lying" has become a archaic thing of the past.

Politics has become the science of "talking points." Law has become the practice of questioning everything while evading anything that would risk a desired outcome - regardless, of actual truth of fact. "There is no truth; only information to manipulated" doctrine is nowhere more prevalent than in a courtroom.

Gone is truth in advertising. It's all about disclaimers. Legal-ease to avoid responsibility for advertised claims. Don't you wish people came with such disclaimers? How many of us would read the fine print, if they did? Some, would come with so much it would take hours to read it all.

In business, it's about sales; in politics, it's about position and power - both compute to money. It's always about money. Sales equals income (money); votes equal power (money). Take away the congress' ability to tax and spend; they would be powerless without the ability to wield the influence of money. Money equals power in today's society. Viewer-ship equals power in media. Viewer-ship translates to advertising; which translates to dollars. Whether the audience size of a show on "the tube," or the number of "hits" on a video on "You-Tube," in all translates into dollars. Follow the money. There's

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