Saturday, October 3, 2009

True Lies

Lying is an art man has been trying to perfect for ages. If Paris were good at it, Troy wouldn’t have been part of history the way it is. It’s another one of those dark arts that can make man all very powerful. Imagine Dharmaraja accepting it, and the Mahabharata would probably never have been the epic it is. But a vice it remains- albeit a very potent one. Even a decent level of mastery over it and snap: you’re in the seat of power. Of course, social science in its own innocent journey towards uncovering every little aspect of human nature, has left no stone unturned in trying to figure out the intricacies of this dark power, and has been successful to a very large extent. So much so, that some are actually in the profession of finding out when one is attempting to blind Lady Truth, much like her notorious cousin, Justice. But, as one great man implied perfectly in the work of his lifetime, man’s greatest weakness is a consequence of his strength, and vice-versa. To convince the greatest of doubters of your statement, you’d have to do just that- convince the one who can have the greatest doubt: the one who knows it isn’t the truth. Once you conjure up a lie good enough to convince yourself, in a way that you yourself believe the truth to be just a figment of your imagination, the deed is done.

In a way, lying is telling the truth.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, either you are going the DKdK9 way, or another of the 'Great Telephonic Conversations' just took place. Incidentally, since you mentioned justice, I urge you to go through the conversation between V and Lady Justice. In the comic/wiki article, of course. There wasn't enough space for it in the movie.

Anunaya Jha said...

The line, my friend, is very very blurred nowdays!
To say you're doing well to an innocuous interrogation is also a flat, blatant, blaring lie!

Murty said...

@ Raps

Hehe. Neither ra. And I sall look it up.

@ Anunya

Bah, I'm just fine. This is just a result of a long evening and night-time dawdling.

Anonymous said...

Why do I get the feeling I inspired much of the post? I took a bus from Delhi the other day and was seated beside this overtly-friendly hexagenarian. For no reason at all, I pretended to be a COER student and narrated tales on how I had prepared a lot for the JEE but didn't make the cut, how much it pained me to see the morons IIT was filled with and whatnot. Lying is good fun, I admit.

Rapu ra, you do me proud. I was about to quote the same dialogue. "Justice is meaningless without freedom"- Alan Moore eej gawd.

Chronoz said...

I don't know why you are trying to take the middle line. My 2 cents, I try to avoid lying, as much as possible.

Murty said...

@ Dile

Why your very nickname is the very beginning, isn't it? And it's just the same reason I wrote the post- I lie almost instinctively when there's no need, no rhyme, no reason.

@ Shreyas

I'm not taking a stand- I'm just telling what it is.

Saagar said...

Well
Lying is better than sitting or standing any day.

Murty said...

@ Lefty

I knew it! I knew you'd be the one to spot it! :)

Anirudh Arun said...

Lying is undoubtedly fun, most of the pleasure being derived from the risk involved. But funny coming from you, the puritan.

Murty said...

The vices are made to be enticing, of course.