The Truth About Lies
Lisa Lipkin
Story Strategist - Oral historian - Professional Storyteller - Podcast Host at The Brand Called You
The inaugural ball gowns aren’t even back from the dry cleaners and President Trump, speaking through his press secretary, Sean Spicer, has already told his first official lie. Despite visual proof to the contrary, he proclaimed the crowd at Saturday’s inauguration to be the biggest in history.
Americans may see this lie as alarming, but as a professional storyteller and coach who lives and works in Europe, I see something positive in it. Finally, we will learn to listen with a cynical ear, a habit practiced by all my European clients.
One of the most glaring differences I became aware of after moving to Amsterdam eight years ago was the way in which Americans receive information. In the US, the onus tends to fall on the teller of the story. It’s up to him or her to tell the truth. Europeans, on the other hand, don’t expect everything that comes out of the speaker’s mouth to be true. Centuries of experience with despots and ‘evil doers’ have made them savvy listeners. They know it’s up to them to figure out what is fueled by fact vs emotion and find the truth somewhere in between.
Losing our literalism is a great step towards maturity. We will learn to hear in shades of gray. We will begin to understand that evil and good often cohabitate in the same sentence; that a lie can be truthful if you look for its emotional motivation.
Yes, we all need to choose our words wisely. But we also need to hear our words wisely too, a habit that Trump and his army of propagandists will help us perfect.
Lisa Lipkin
Farmer - Permaculture Production Systems at NORTEC International
8 年The lies about the truth! They'll dig themselves in deeper and deeper until the hole caves in.
Battery Modelling Hobbyist
8 年Once again the far right (in the UK as well as the US) has managed to fool a large number of economically-impacted but under-educated people (as Erik van Lennep succinctly described them) into believing that what they would like to believe is actually true. The irony is that the leaders have no real aim of improving the situation of the people that voted for them - who on the contrary are the ones in danger of suffering the most.
Helping aspiring authors craft their best stories and author their best lives. I teach creative writing at the intersection of Story Structure and Personal Development.
8 年A dose of insightful optimism is just what we need right now - thanks, Lisa!
International lawyer / board member / advisor on many subjects
8 年These are important ideas. Everybody, listen to Lisa!
Speak with IMPACT. Speaker coach & trainer, helping clients LAND their message with CLEAR content, CONFIDENT delivery & CONVINCING arguments on the VIRTUAL & physical stage.
8 年Let's call it creativity with facts!