If I told you I know the truth about lies I'd be lying

My favourite places are negative spaces. Dark corners and things going on under stones which help us make sense of the observable world. Let's shine a light and lift some of them.

For the purposes of the article I am going to define lies as any narrative, spoken or otherwise (including beliefs), whose distortion effect (often due to fallacy) limits the growth and importantly developement of the person/network/organisation they occur in. Here are three of my favourites:

• Difficult questions have easy answers
• We can attain or retain master-ship without practice
• I don't lie
• Words have a single meaning
• I can control the interpretation of words

There are a plethora of less heavy ones as well, like Ray in department x is a cowboy, robots will take over my hot dog stand, area 51 holds open days for the Illuminati. Apparently a full taxonomy of untruths does not exist - it's too complicated -which in itself reveals important clues about what is going on. See here for a partial taxonomy:

Studies have shown that lies are more easily learnt and replicated than truths (it's easier cf. Parkinson's Law of Triviality/Bike-shedding). There are more of them and they spread faster, due it is argued to a human bias towards novelty and negativity when sharing information:

This leads to a disturbing and useful conclusion: while the truth is a better strategist, lies are the better tacticians. And last time I played chess with a more superior tactician: I lost.

My thesis is that the truth needs better tactics to compete and I see these as occurring in the following seven dimensions:

1. Tune-in: recognise the truth. Tip: pain and discomfort often involved. A guiding principle or purpose is necessary
2. Empower those speaking the truth: if nerds teach them comms skills, if naive teach them power tactics, if unheard give them a platform
3. Empower those not hearing the truth: if powerful offer them something of value and use the vector to teach humility, if ignorant then help them learn, if lost help them find the way. Do it in stages: truth is a heady brew
4. Shared endeavour and action is more powerful than words. Exploit group dynamics so we an all learn together
5. Have hope: truth is innate and powerful and always wins out in the end

Practical experience in the dojo of life also teaches that people are at different stages of their truth journey and each one is unique. It's like we're all on our different path on life's great strange attractor (mortal coil anyone?) and what seems close can be far away and vice versa. In the end we can all help each other but we should not assume we are necessarily on the same path. Jack had something to say about this:

Thanks, Harold, for suggesting this great quote by Heinz von Foerster:

Truth is the Invention of a Liar.

And here is the same quote referenced on a site covering another of my heroes, Moshe Feldenkreis:

Thanks for reading, you're great. You are intelligent and attractive , smell nice, and have perhaps absorbed some of the beneficial side effects of these unverified assumptions on my part. Who knows? Perhaps some good came of it. We all need validation and love and investment; and perhaps, now more than ever, so does the truth.