I was flipping around through YouTube last night and I came upon this interview with, I’ll use the term, “Celebrity,” that I knew very well. Not only in the intro to the interview but from the mouth of the interviewee themselves, there were several lies that were told.
 
Now, this is no big deal, and it doesn’t really affect me or my reality in any way. But, like I say, I knew this person and their life very well, and I knew what they were saying was just not the truth.
 
There were claims being made about some of their accomplishments, accolades, and what they were doing with their time, but most of what was being said was not true. Yet, there it was being spoken, being believed, and being spread out across the world of all those who cared. My guess would be that most everyone who saw that interview believed the words at face value.
 
That’s one of the main reasons that I turn down most interviews and/or to be a part of a documentary about a specific individual. I don’t want to be the one to shatter the illusion.
 
Okay… Back to the point… That’s just life, you may say. People lie. This is especially the case with celebrities who are etching a name for themselves in the minds of the people. But, that does not change the fact that what was being said was not the truth.
 
Here’s a question for you, how much of what you hear do you instantly believe? Like in the case of that interview, would you believe what was being said simply because it was being said?
 
I know, I know, there are a lot of the Negative Nellies out there who rail at any, “Celebrity,” or individual in the public eye that they do not like—not only critiquing and criticizing them but attempting to draw suspicion about what facts that are known about that person. But, if what a person like that says or does, based in that mindset, is wrong, how is that any less of a lie?
 
You know, it would be nice if everyone just told the truth and didn’t embellish or do anything like that. I doubt that will ever be the case, however. So, what are we supposed to do with this information/understanding?
 
There’s a certain part of me who agrees with what Sylvester Stallone reiterate to one of his daughters in an episode of the Reality TV Series, The Family Stallone, “T.N.O., Trust no one.”  
 
Or, maybe better explained via the philosophy of, Niccolò Machiavelli, who detailed that every person has their own agenda by anchoring their philosophy in universal egoism. He observed that human nature is fundamentally driven by self-interest, self-preservation, and personal gain. Machiavelli argued that individuals are inherently fickle, ungrateful, and deceitful, abandoning their loyalties the moment their personal interests are threatened. Stating further that people only possess, “Conditional Loyalty,” and their devotion lasts only as long as it benefits the individual.
 
So, this person was lying in their interview. People make up stories, that are not true, about other people all the time.
 
I mean, on a funny sidebar, there was this urban myth going around, within a certain segment of my extended family, that the reason I always wear long sleeve shirts is due to the fact that I have tattoos all over my body. When I laughed and told them I have none, they didn’t even believe me. I just like long sleeve shirts!
 
So, what is reality? Is it what the truth actually is? Or, is it simply what you believe the truth to be?
 
I don’t know??? I guess the answer to that question is different for each individual. What I do know is, people say a lot of things that are not the truth. And, from this, a lot of people believe a lot of lies.
 
But, is a lie ever the truth?