Honesty

 The invention of writing promoted the practice of lying and deceit.

1. In pre literate societies, your word was your bond. Agreements were sworn before a witness and before “The Gods.” Your word was your bond and your reputation. People were more honest.

2. The invention of writing introduced the idea that no matter what we said, the "real" agreement is written down on paper (or stone or clay). This introduced the idea that we could tell half-truths because "WHAT WE SAID DID NOT MATTER. ALL THAT MATTERS WAS WRITTEN DOWN.”

3. Compulsive lying and deceit became a regular professional practice that is still carried as a badge of honor by insurance salesmen, used car dealers, real estate salesman, and every advertiser on TV.

4. In "The Communist Manifesto" by Marx and Engels, they remark that the function of Capitalism is to reduce all human relations to a monetary transaction. This is happening in our society before our very eyes. And consequently, people are compulsively dishonest, and selfish. Cheating is a natural part of life.

5. When I see the homeless people living right in the street and no one really cares to help, I know that Karl Marx was correct.

6. Too bad… "Prepare for doom." Because of this habitual dishonesty and deceit, World War Three has already started and the result will be total destruction. When we habitually lie, we forget what the real truth is and we live in a delusion. Eventually we pay the price for our delusion. A good analogy would be driving a car with your eyes closed.

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It is difficult to maintain a sense of honesty and integrity in a society that promotes dishonesty and lying on every level. For example, I have worked professionally for forty years. I have not had an employer that has not lied to me during hiring about 1.The pay, 2. The hours, or 3. The nature of the work.

Lying and dishonesty is now a standard feature of government debate.

My University Professors all lied to me about the nature of my schooling and the purpose of my education. In fact the entire University system in USA today is largely based on deceit of getting student loans for college degrees for which there really is no job and no necessity.

 It almost seems that the USA America is founded on lies and deceit.

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Counseling is largely ineffective and has the same recovery rates as doing nothing at all.

Counseling is ineffective because the person is not responsible for their own pain. They have been put in a no win situation by society. Counseling might help the less intelligent work more efficient game playing strategies, but unfortunately most of the mental anguish that people suffer is not really caused by their own actions, it is the result of doing the best you can in a no win situation called modern industrial society.

"Mental Illness" [that is obviously NOT biologically based in a damaged or malformed brain] is largely caused by the structure of society. People are not responsible for their mal-adaptive response. They really had no other choice. Similar to a psychology experiment, they are put in a "no win" situation and then THEY are blamed when they fail.

This is all to the advantage of the money holders and the 1% that really owns and controls society. In this light, the entire discussion of honesty and "mental illness" is mute. The game is rigged against us by the 1%.

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 The real advantage to honesty is that it is biologically healthier in the long run even if it is frequently disadvantageous both economically and socially in the short run.

 I am not that intelligent and figured all this out by accident, dumb luck, and personal misfortune.

copyright (c) 2017

William Schaeffer