Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave

There is a tension in our culture regarding the art and practice of lying.

We take for granted that public figures lie all the time, but the degree to which we choose to hold them accountable when lies are exposed differs based upon the arena they participate in. For ease of classification, I will use USA Today's four-part color-coded system to analyze how liars are regarded by the media:

1) News--While it is true that a President was impeached for perjury less than ten years ago, "lies" and "politics" are two words often juxtaposed in such a way that we are desensitized to the association. Corruption and bribery still gall us, but not lying for the sake of political convenience. Consider the case of President Bush admitting that he lied about Donald Rumsfeld's job security, then getting a pass (on that topic) from the same media corps that doesn't hesitate to grill him on other topics.

2) Life (Entertainment/Pop Culture)--Nobody takes anything anyone in the entertainment industry says at face value, so there is no outrage when prevarications finally come to light. This is particularly the case with celebrity couples, who constantly deny dating rumors and break-ups. I would like for someone to ask Jennifer Aniston: "Why did you lie about dating Vince Vaughn?" or Nick Lachey/Jessica Simpson: "Why did you lie about the strength of your marriage for months?" I would like to see the utter shock in their eyes.

3) Money--Martha Stewart was unable to successfully code switch from the entertainment world, where falsehood is accepted, to the business world, where it is not. If it comes to light that anyone in the corporate world has lied about anything, they are not part of the corporate world much longer (unless you have already established yourself in the entertainment world).

4) Sports--The sports world contains an interesting tension on its own. It is governed by the same vague middle class morality that governs the corporate structure (think of NBA dress codes, NFL crackdowns on celebrations, etc...) yet contains elements of the glitz and artifice of the entertainment idiom (the clash in this tension was fully realized in the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show). The Nick Saban story was evident of how lying is regarded in this community. On the one hand, he was lambasted by the media (scroll down to the bottom); on the other hand, he received this reaction upon landing at the airport in Alabama.

Now, the general public's reaction to these incidents will naturally be colored by their own experience with lying. Research has shown that most people lie and lie often in everyday conversation. According to those who have conducted the studies, the primary reason we lie is more defensive than offensive--we are protecting our self-esteem. I don't think it would be a regular stretch to say that most everyday liars don't do so because they want to, but because they think they have to.

At the same time, our culture often disseminates messages that hold to the Augustinian and Kantian notions that lying is absolutely wrong. The reason that these philosophers held that lying was wrong was because the liar breaks an implicit contract with others--and now is subject to being lied to. I think this contract, though certainly not consciously articulated on a regular basis, still holds a powerful hold on people. It is what gives fuel to our indignation when we learn that someone has deceived us. It is what gave rise to the invectives hurled against Nick Saban.

On the other hand, there is another implicit contract that I believe governs our discourse. If virtually everyone is guilty of some degree of falsehood, and falsehood is considered to be a grievous sin, it is in everyone's best interests to engage in a conspiracy of silence. Who hasn't been in a position where they were 100% certain that someone was lying to them (there may even be hard evidence to support an accusation), yet lets the liar off the hook and doesn't call them on it?

When Walter Scott made his famous statement about tangled webs and deception, perhaps he wasn't even half aware of how right he was.