Sometimes a valuable thought can be found in unexpected places. In the TV series “Narcos,” the Colombian drug dealer Pablo Escobar utters the phrase: “Lies are necessary when the truth is too difficult to believe”. Perhaps all the lies that exist in the world are based not so much on the fact that someone is trying to fool, as on the fact that there is always someone who is happy to be fooled.
A prime example of this is the game of thimbles. It would seem that everyone knows this fraud, which has its roots in the centuries, or even millennia. But no, there is always a “victim” ready to gamble away all the money raised to buy boots for a child. This is where the cheat finds his moral justification: “I don’t force anyone to participate in the game. The justification is cheesy, of course, but the victims do willingly stick their heads in the lion’s mouth. The temptation to solve all current problems in one fell swoop proves irresistible.
Yes, the truth can be unbearable. Especially when it violates the image of the precious self. Accepting reality as it is can mean the death of a part of the personality, whether the vision of oneself as a successful businessman, an ideal parent, an altruist, or the savior of people, animals, or the planet. Not everyone is willing to look into the vaults of their souls, much less regularly subject themselves to torture-cleansing. Therefore, over the years, the screen of lies turns into a fence, then into scaffolding, and then the foundations are quietly poured and the concrete walls of a skyscraper are erected. An earthquake, tsunami or another cataclysm must occur for the tower to collapse, and for its owner, if he survived, to regain under his feet a firm ground.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
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