A Lie Is A Lie
Gregory K. Moffatt, Ph.D.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the dishonesty in politics. The most recent example is Congressman Mark Kirk who claimed several times during his career in congress and also in a recent campaign that he was a Vietnam veteran when in fact he was not. Instead he was stationed elsewhere and never was in Vietnam.
In a pseudo-apology, he said he "was not thinking" and that he was "careless" in his words. Are you kidding me? He lied. How can you accidentally say you were a veteran of one of the most controversial military conflicts of the past millennium? He also claimed to be "Navy Intelligence Officer of the Year," which he was not.
Look carefully at his words - "I'm not perfect and I was careless," and "I wasn't thinking." I disagree. He was thinking and knew exactly what he was saying. He lied for his own political advantage. That is nothing new. Politicians have been lying for centuries. I expect them to lie.
What bothers me is that the public accepts such weak apologies. He was not "careless" or "mistaken." Have any of you ever "accidentally" claimed to be a veteran of a military conflict? Or have you ever "carelessly" said you were a neurosurgeon when you weren't? Have you ever "without thinking" accidentally told someone you went to a college that you never attended? Of course you haven't because you know you didn't do these things. It would be a lie.
If your children said something so blatantly untrue, you would never accept "I misspoke" as one politician said in recent years or "I misremembered" as another said. You wouldn't accept "I was careless with my words," either. Even though Kirk has claimed that he will "work to make it right" several times since his lies became public, he hasn't done anything to "make it right." To make it right he would have to admit that he was hoping the public was too stupid or disinterested to figure out his words were untrue and that he deliberately lied to get elected.
My point here is not Kirk. I don't live in his district and I couldn't vote for or against him if I wanted to. This is not exclusively a Republican, Democrat, or Independent problem. My point is that our acceptance of such behavior becomes a part of our culture over time. Some of us remember when it was against the law to say the word "damn" in the movies, on TV, or on the radio and it was even illegal to say it on the street. Over time we began to accept profanity and now you can read the word "damn" in an article like this and not even flinch. Much more offensive words have seeped into our culture and are regularly a part of comedy, movies, television, and daily conversation.
Will we come to the point where every blatant lie is a "careless" mistake? Will we come to the point where your boss can tell you that if you finish a project you will get a bonus and then when you do as you are asked he can say, "Ooops. I misspoke. There is no raise and there never was." Will we get to the point where our children will believe that it is OK to blatantly lie about where they are going, who they are with, or what they will do? If they are caught will it be OK for them to say, "I was careless with my words, but I stand by my record." How ridiculous.
If this kind of social statement doesn't trouble you, it may already be too late. A lie is a lie and it would make my day if at least just one journalist would confront such absurd comments with, "Are you kidding me? How can you misremember what country you were in or whether or not you were under fire in a military conflict?"
I won't hold my breath, but those of us in the real world
have the opportunity to call it as it is and teach our children
a higher standard of conduct than appears to be acceptable to
our politicians.