Talking about lying in today’s world has become a strange thing, so much has it, so to speak, become universalized. From individualized lying to state lying, from the discourse of politicians to the generalized lying of merchandise, falsification is everywhere. To the point of making us doubt even the existence of any truth or veracity that we would like to pass on to us from now on as relative, as being a simple matter of opinion. The permanent invasion of the “media” in our lives is certainly not for nothing in these increasingly troubled waters where the very presence of what we touch with our fingers becomes doubtful, random, fluctuating.
Even more seriously, human relationships are being completely disrupted at their very core. While there have always been liars, lying for their own reasons and at their own expense, a society in which lying is necessary, because it is the only way to survive, inevitably leads to a general perversion of the conditions of existence and can only work towards its own destruction.
But without truth, there can be no lies either. What truth does lying seek to conceal? Why has it gained so much ground in our forms of society? How can we live in this context?
It is worth noting that the subject of lying has itself gradually become a taboo. In a society where everyone is, to a greater or lesser extent, led to lie, how can we rid ourselves of this pestilence?
This list will therefore bring together a few works that attempt to provide some answers to these questions. By authors with a taste for the truth, if possible.
Histoire du mensonge (History of lying) – Prolégomènes. by Jacques Derrida
Because in principle and in its classical determination, lying is not an error. One can be in error, one can be mistaken, one can even say something false without seeking to deceive and therefore without lying. “Lying is wanting to deceive the other person, sometimes even by telling the truth. One can tell a lie without lying but one can also tell the truth with the intention of deceiving, that is to say by lying. But one does not lie if one believes what one is saying, if one has faith in it, even if it is false. “Aristotle specifies, and this is essential for what matters to us, that the liar is not only one who can lie but one who prefers to lie and, being inclined to do so, does so by choice, intentionally (o eukheres kai proairetikos). In this way, another objection to Plato, he is worse than the involuntary liar, if such a thing exists.
Mensonge et maladie mentale (Lying and mental illness) by Joseph Gabel
The liar is also alone, without freedom, without encounters, and he also lives in a devalued universe. Lying is not a mental illness but its structure is that of mental illness.
(On the difference between selfishness and egocentrism)
The egoist is concerned only with his own interests; egoism is a moral phenomenon; the egocentric believes himself to be the center of the world; egocentrism is, above all, a logical and ontological phenomenon. With the egoist, dialogue is still possible; convince him that he is not defending his own interests properly understood, and he will change his attitude. With the egocentric, there is no possible dialogue because to convince him, the distortion of the logical coordinates of his existence must be corrected.
No one will doubt, I suppose, the egocentric nature of lying; it is a classic fact. The man who tells the truth assumes that his interlocutor does the same; whether or not this assumption is justified, there is nothing absurd about it. The universe of truth is a universe of reversible relationships; an adult universe. The liar, on the other hand, must assume that his opponent is telling the truth; lying cannot be generalized, a world of generalized lies would be an absurd world. As a result, the liar is alone, his dialogue is a false dialogue, he maintains an illusion of encounter in which he is both craftsman and dupe.
The liar is obliged to assume a role that is not his own, that is external to him; he must react according to this artificial role, living in terror of the gaffe that could betray him. He often experiences the moment when he is unmasked as a kind of liberation.
From an anthropological point of view, lying therefore appears to be a peripheral phenomenon of psychopathology. It is probably the same forces – or more exactly the same weaknesses – that force one person to take refuge in delusion and another to try to “get ahead” in life on the fragile crutches of lies.
Réflexions sur le mensonge (Reflections on lying) by Alexandre Koyré
If nothing is more refined than the technique of modern propaganda, nothing is more crude than the content of its assertions, which reveal an absolute and total contempt for the truth. And even for simple plausibility.
The truth is therefore always esoteric and hidden. It is never accessible to the common, the vulgar, the profane. Nor even to those who are not fully initiated. Every member of the secret group is fully aware of this. He will therefore never believe what he hears said in public by a member of his own group. And above all, he will never accept as true anything that is publicly proclaimed by his leader. Because it is not he that his leader is addressing, but the “others”, those “others” that he has a duty to blind, to fool, to deceive. Thus, in a new paradox, it is in the refusal to believe what he says and proclaims that the confidence of the member of the secret group in his leader is expressed.
It is also true that neither totalitarian states nor parties are secret societies in the precise sense of the term and that they act publicly. And even with a great deal of publicity. The fact is that — and this is the innovation we mentioned above — they are conspiracies in broad daylight.
A conspiracy in broad daylight – a new and curious form of group action, specific to the democratic era.
Du mensonge à la violence (From Lie to Violence) by Hannah Arendt
Deception never comes into conflict with reason, because things could have happened in the way the liar claims. The lie is often more plausible, more tempting than reality, because the liar has the great advantage of knowing in advance what the public wants to hear or expects to hear.
Given the extent to which the intention to practice insincerity in politics has reached the highest level of government, and the degree to which, at the same time, lying has proliferated within all official services, both civil and military (..) one would be tempted to forget a whole historical background that does not exactly reveal innocence and virtue.
Le déclin du mensonge (The Decay of Lying) by Oscar Wilde
It is only in appearance that this little pamphlet by Oscar Wilde seems to take this contrarian stance in its title. For, in fact, it is the decline of the richness of the imagination that it heralds. How then can we fail to see that the poverty of its imagination and the pettiness of its aspirations are added to the mediocrity of the globalized lie, to which is added its pitiful staging of a “truth” that has now disappeared.
Even he who is incapable of learning has set himself up as a teacher.
In 1879, having just left Oxford, I met a very curious woman of exotic beauty at a reception in an embassy. We became great friends; we were always together. And yet what interested me most about her was not so much her beauty as her character, her absolute indecision of character. She seemed to have no personality, but simply had the ability to represent many. Sometimes she devoted herself entirely to art, turning her living room into a studio and spending two or three days a week in art galleries or museums. Then she would start following the races, wearing the most sporty clothes, and would talk only of betting. She abandoned religion for mesmerism, mesmerism for politics and politics for the melodramatic emotions of philanthropy. In short, she was a kind of Proteus, and experienced the same failure in all her metamorphoses as this astonishing sea god when Odysseus captured him.
Minima Moralia: Reflections on mutilated life by Theodor Adorno
He who lies is ashamed, because each lie makes him feel all that is unworthy in the order of a world that forces him to lie in order to survive. (…) This modesty weakens the lies of those with a delicate sensibility. They do not fare well; and it is then that lying becomes truly immoral in relation to others. It is in fact to take them for an idiot and show them disdain. In the shameless practices of our time, lying has long since lost its clear function of deceiving us about reality. Nobody believes anyone anymore; everyone knows what to expect. We only lie to others to show them how little interest we have in them, to show them that we don’t need them and that we don’t care what they think. Lying, which in the past could bring a certain flexibility to communication, has now become one of the techniques of impudence, used by each individual to spread around them the coldness they need to thrive.
L’Âge de l’ersatz (The Age of the Surrogate) by William Morris
However, while the art of lying has always been assiduously cultivated throughout the world, particularly by those who live off the labor of others, it is an art that few have been able to perfect.
La fausse parole (The false word) by Armand Robin
There can be no lie. It can only be a question of means likely to violate observable reality in order to force it to engender the desired reality.
In short, it is as if reality were not to exist, or at least as if the real aim were to rid humanity of its undesirable propensity to acknowledge that what exists does exist.
La société du spectacle (Society of the Spectacle) by Guy Debord
The presence of this book on this list should come as no surprise. It is one of the few works capable of providing a comprehensive answer to the question of lies in this society. And while it has been criticized for many things, no one has ever been able to claim that it lied about its content. In the social form established by the Spectacle, actual experience is relegated to oblivion, repressed, so to speak, and replaced by the illusory representation that everyone tries to give it as soon as it appears to exist or when they simply seek to forget the real misery of their existence. In this respect, the spectacle is indeed the lie accomplished by, and in, the reign of the market.
L’industrie du mensonge (The Lie Factory) by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
“By examining the world of lobbyists, this book reveals the extent of the manipulation used to transform ‘public opinion’ and reinforce the interests of large industrial groups. From spies to opportunistic journalists, including unscrupulous scientists and fake protesters, the public relations industry uses every possible channel to ensure that only information that suits its clients – governments and multinationals, producers of nuclear energy or tobacco, polluting technologies, etc. – is disseminated.
To those who use lobbying methods to redress social injustices, protect the environment, promote the rights of minorities, defend workers or work for the happiness of their community, we wanted to show that it is an illusion to believe that these techniques are neutral in nature. Even if all the environmental organizations in the world pooled their resources, they would never have a public relations budget equivalent to that of a single pesticide manufacturer determined to defend its interests.
The social world manipulated by the propaganda described by the authors is a good illustration of Lippmann’s project: a “revolution in the practice of democracy” through the “manufacture of consent”, the only way to govern the people. “The public must be put in its place,” wrote Lippmann, “so that responsible men can live without fear of being trampled or gored by the herd of wild beasts.” Less brutal than Lippmann, but just as megalomaniacal and just as undemocratic, Bernays spoke of the “important role, in a democratic society”, of the “conscious, intelligent manipulation of the organized opinions and habits of the masses”, concluding: “Those who manipulate this imperceptible social mechanism form an invisible government that truly runs the country.”
Translated by TerKo with the help of a free translation tool.