The Truth in Lies

“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar” (Accredited to Twain via Mark Twain and I, Read)

Personally I have always valued honesty over politeness. Am I attempting to sell you the story that I do not lie? Not at all. We all lie. We lie, all the time, in fact.   Some are little, while others are much more pronounced. So, why do we lie?

In my first post I talked briefly about social structure and our efforts for inclusion. These social groups, which we find ourselves in or seek, enforce a certain set of norms and expectations. Through dramaturgical approach, we carry out these sets of rules to chase inclusion to the group, creating a feeling of belonging. Erving Goffman developed this dramaturgical approach to the presentation of self in everyday life, as his study is named.   Goffman presented a theory of how we act socially and compared it to the theater. We’re acting. Dramaturgy views social interaction as a performance portrayed to an audience based on one’s manifestation of what another individual wants or the social group expects. This flows throughout the group, and polarizes to perform for outer groups. Accentuation effect takes place here exaggerating the dynamics of the group simultaneously, and usually negatively, exaggerating the perceived dynamics of the outer group. Most often the outer group finds itself in contrast to the included group. Depersonalization and deindividuation occur as one conforms to the groups’ dynamics and homogenizes with drive towards the prototypical member of the group. As mentioned earlier, some of these groups are not exactly chosen.

“Since the reality that the individual is concerned with is unperceivable at the moment, appearances must be relied upon in its stead. And, paradoxically, the more the individual is concerned with the reality that is not available to perception, the more must he concentrate his attention on appearances.” (Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life)

In my most recent post I entertained the concept of fear. Fear uses us in many ways, and deserves the gold medal for being the number one cause for lying.   For the most prevalent example,  one pairs fear with the concepts of the generalized other and the looking-glass self.   Now, introduce the desire of belonging. Through dramaturgical approach, the manifested expectations of others produce fear causing the lie of theater portrayed to our audience. For another example, at times this fear can present the lie in forms of exclusion rather than inclusion, defining groupthink.

Fear is the main reason we lie.

Humility and humbleness are the signs of great people.

Why I chose the social sciences.

I spent the first couple weeks mapping out some reference points, a simple summary of the self and how it may interact with social and symbolic interaction. As we have had a break in the weeks, and I designed these to flow sequentially, I feel this to be a good week to segue from formal deduction to my opinions in the field.

Youth… why?

Beginning with rationalities and logical development in life, I became obsessed with the following questions. Why do we do what we do? Why do we bias what we bias? Why do we always seek more? Why can we not leave well enough alone? Why do we value money over most else? How does egocentrism cause disconnect to the reality of one another? And, of course, as a young to grown boy, at the risk of Freudian deduction, how do I get her to notice me?

Adolescence… who am I?

I was in 10^th grade English class when presented with a class assignment, impromptu speeches. I was given the subject matter of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-reliance.

“There comes a time in every mans education when he comes to the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, at his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till”

This changed my life, my way of thinking, my drive, my interests and my understanding on individuals that I call my peers.

Young Adulthood… Freud et al.

“A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring” (Pope, An Essay on Criticism)

I follow this quote from Alexander Pope with a discussion of how Freud influenced and started squeegeeing my third eye due to the erroneous condemnation that he receives. Most exaggerate his sexual theories, accuse him of excessive gender bias (beyond what would be construed in the zeitgeist, also he did not separate man and woman in his studies as most others, in the time, did), inaccurately depict his opinions of homo and hetero sexuality (as he fully supported homosexuality and furthermore informed parents who wanted to him to use psychoanalysis to “cure” their children of said homosexuality that he could assist their children in psychologically accepting themselves but made no promises to changing the way they desired), condemn him for non experimental case study, and my personal favorite, have never read any of his works, while only condemning based on other authoritative and influential biases.  Was he right about everything?  I bring your attention to his female anatomy deduction and the Oedipus Complex.  Is anyone though?  Did he offer a great amount to the study of the mind?  Yes!

Freud was one of my first influences, with The Interpretation of Dreams. In hindsight many years later, it is my least favored of his works, while Civilization and its Discontents perhaps being my favorite.   Followed by the vanilla list of authors, Emerson, Nietzsche, Hegel, Rand, Marx, Darwin, et al.  Emerson emerged as my most favored essayist, and rightfully so, as he was the catalyst to my interest.  Classic literature assisted greatly in my developmental perception as well.  Writers such as, Wells, Verne, Orwell, Huxley, Carroll, Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, Twain, et al.  I mention vanilla due to the watered down names over used and over represented in society, though I do again reference my earlier question, why do we seek more?  This question is relative to this design of how eventually nearly all things lose shelf life of validity, due to no more than just a watered down effect.  Does this actually devalue the work or the insight these authors presented?   I would say not, though social scrutiny would have you believe yes.

Humility and humbleness are the signs of great people.