Burning At Both Ends

Really?

That's another nugget of the intellectual laziness known as "conventional wisdom". It's an easy dismissal, a way of discarding the truths that we don't want to acknowledge, confront, or can't be bothered with; moreover, it gives liars - and their enablers - an easy out.

I​ had this same conversation with a friend a while back. She was impatient with herself, questioning her own annoyance with a cyber-acquaintance - one who regularly presents​ herself as something she's not.

"Why on earth do I let things like this upset me?" she asked.

That's an easy one to answer: she should be upset​, as should Karen, ​and ​they should be glad that ​they're bothered by liars. That's a good thing.

It seems to be some kind of a cultural trend, that we are to accept the fibs, fudgings, and manipulations of the world with good humor​ - like it's the price we have to pay for living in a jaded world. Some of us never agreed to that contract, and we don't abide by it. We get angry at the inability to take people at their word.

 
Personally, I don't know which group I have more disrespect for: there are the liars, and their determination that they will define the realm within which they​, and those around them​, will exist. 

Then, there are those who excuse the liar. The ones who are savvy, and enlightened, and who are perfectly comfortable with the idea that truth is an elusive destination.

 

The​y, when you consider it, are liars ​as well​: they say it doesn't matter, that it's not worth getting upset about, that deception is simply the way of the world.

Then they pop up with the conventional idea, "The truth lies somewhere in the middle."

That's true only if you have a liar on both ends.

 

​See you next month. 

 

'Til then,

Jenna​