By admin
Ever wonder if people can tell when you are lying? If it’s obvious because it’s whenever your lips are moving, I probably can’t help you. But if you really want to know the secrets of being a good liar keep reading. This is something that a majority of the population does well, so why not you? Why should you be burdened with always telling the awful, ugly truth? Spruce up your conversation with a few good lies instead. People will think you are a lot cooler than you know you are deep down.
There are several reasons why people lie. The first is that their profession requires it. Did you ever see that episode of The Twilight Zone where the used car salesman had the haunted car that caused the owner to always tell the truth? He suddenly couldn’t make a living. The politician who was considering buying it (but found out about this particular glitch) couldn’t take it because his career would be finished as well. If you must lie in order to do your job effectively, you had better be good at it - or else find another profession.
A more popular reason is just by habit. At some point a person starts lying and then it just becomes routine. I once worked with a guy who prided himself on it. He wouldn’t tell the truth to a customer under any circumstances as that would have been beneath him. He liked to show off the elaborate lies he would tell to his coworkers. Many of them were very creative, and he used to love it a few days later when the angry customer called back - so he could lie even more. This guy was good.
Another friend of mine exaggerates habitually. When you are having a beer with him and he starts telling anecdotes from his life’s experiences, you know to automatically reduce whatever he says by about 40%. Even he realizes that this habit from his youth has caused everyone who knows him to take his stories with a grain of salt. But he can’t do anything about it. It’s too late. If he started reporting all his life’s experiences accurately now, everyone would still reduce them by 40%. So in order to tell the truth he actually must keep exaggerating.
What about white lies? Those are lies we tell to spare other people’s feelings. That is, until they find out about it. Then they are usually more upset at you over the lie then they would have been if you just told the truth originally.
Then are the really big lies that seem absolutely necessary - the ones that save your skin. If you don’t tell them you are in really big trouble. Some classic examples include President Richard Nixon and, more recently, Martha Stewart. They both had to lie facing some very embarrassing circumstances. Interestingly, they both later discovered that the trouble they got in to for the lie was significantly worse than the trouble they would have gotten into if they just fessed up in the first place. Who’da thunk?
The biggest problem with lying is the necessity of remembering your previous lies. This is a lot tougher then simply accessing your actual memories. Who knows what you said to somebody if you are in the habit of lying? Therefore it is best not to discuss any previous topic of conversation with the same person ever again, just to be safe. The exception would be if it’s one of your standard lies that you tell to everybody - then you are probably OK.
The reality is that the term good liar is an oxymoron. There is no good liar. You cannot become a good liar. You can only be good by not lying. No matter how tempting it is, you will become a much more respected person (by everyone you encounter) if you always are truthful in everything. It can be difficult at times, because this runs counter-intuitive to our human nature. But it’s true. You respect people who are truthful and want nothing to do with liars, right? Everyone else is the same way. Get into the truth habit. Soon it will become second nature to you and won’t require a conscious effort. Your life will be better as a result. That’s a promise.
Papa Riah
Technorati Tags: liar, martha stewart, society
By admin
Papa Riah doesn’t watch much prime-time television. I have tried and tried and tried, but there just isn’t much there that is even vaguely interesting to me. I’d rather watch the same old movie on AMC again that I’ve seen 74 times. However there is one show I like and that is House. Every Saturday night when Mama Riah and I get back from going out to dinner somewhere we plop ourselves down and watch our Tivo’d episode of House, rerun or not.
This week the show decided to push the envelope and opened with a steamy lesbian sex scene, involving one of the regular cast members (this season anyway). It was definitely the most risque such material that has ever been aired on network television, to date. And on my favorite program, nonetheless! They did it in such a way that it fit right in with the dark nature of the show - so unless you were really paying attention to what just happened, you probably wouldn’t notice or even think twice about it.
So they slipped one in on us, and as a result have effectively paved the way for all manner of homosexual sex scenes on prime-time television. That’s what just happened. You don’t see male homosexual sex scenes on TV yet because that is a much more graphic connotation. Men actually possess the tools to… um… violate each other, while female homosexual sex (for lack of a better word) seems like a harmless little vice by comparison. At least that’s how society sees it at the moment.
Twenty years ago no way would this have flown. Fifty years ago you’d have a hard time finding something this radical in a porno movie. Seriously! Today it’s on regular network prime-time television. Give it twenty more years and the way things are going you can expect hardcore male-homosexual sex scenes on Sesame Street. Sure, you laugh at that now. But the notion of this last episode of House airing anywhere outside of cable TV was unfathomable just twenty years ago. You cannot deny the direction in which things are headed, and unless something happens to stop it that’s where we are going.
And nothing will probably happen to stop it because the bottom line is nobody cares. Heck even I don’t really care that much about it, and that’s part of what is so interesting. Watching two women make out is uncomfortable to me, as it is to most of you normal people who haven’t yet been converted into total perverts. But we sit there and pretend it isn’t, because we are conforming to the progress (for lack of a better word) of our culture around us. So even Papa Riah is being gradually lulled into submission by the forces that are slowly but surely degrading our society.
If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water he will immediately jump out. But if you put him in a pot of room-temperature water and turn the heat on underneath, he will stay in there and slowly boil to death. We are all frogs in a pot of water folks, and the heat has been turned up. Anybody notice?
Papa Riah
PS. If you don’t think society is degrading fast just take a look at the Google ads which are displaying on this page. You know Google doesn’t allow ads for gambling-related products? So what gives with this stuff?
Technorati Tags: homosexual, house, society, television
By admin
This is the first post in a category that is close to Papa Riah’s heart. The downhill snowballing-effect that is spurring the degradation of our society is very saddening for somebody who sees social issues clearly. Now I know that I am in the minority on this viewpoint, and that is part of what is so sad. Society actually wants to degrade itself! I cannot deny this obvious fact. Most people want to be surrounded by a culture that displays less morals and ethics, not more. Everywhere you look traditional values have deteriorated and people are celebrating because of it.
Think about the 1950’s for a moment (no, Papa Riah was not born yet). The very popular TV show of the 70’s Happy Days depicted an era built around traditional values. If a girl had sex before marriage she actually received a bad reputation as a result. Sexually immoral connotations were banned from all forms of media. Curse words were not a prominent part of linguistics. Honesty was held in high esteem. And you know something? They all had a great time. After all the title of the show is Happy Days. How happy is everyone these days, really?
Contrast that against our present day society. I cannot drive a 15-mile stretch of freeway without being bombarded by billboards with hot young girls in their underwear posing in sexually suggestive positions. Prime time television shows blatantly celebrate sexual immorality. They’ve gone way past saying ass on TV/Radio and now can even add hole to that phrase. Incredibly popular reality shows reward the most back-stabbing, successful liar with million-dollar prizes - sending a clear message to our youth that this is how you get ahead in the world.
Frivolous lawsuits are running rampant as anybody who thinks they might be able to get some money will sue anybody over anything regardless of circumstance, actual liability, or true incurred damages. Late night television commercials for lawyers encouraging you to find somebody with money to sue are interspersed only by ads for sexual enhancement products. Apparently getting all the money you can legally steal and having as many orgasms as humanly possible are the only really important pursuits in life. And apparently it’s OK to let our children understand this at a young age.
Now I am not here to try and stop this or build some kind of moral minority group to make political statements. The reason why not is because there isn’t anything you or I or even a whole bunch of us can do about it. It’s a wasted effort fighting this battle, because it’s only going to continue to get worse. That’s a fact.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t call this stuff out and laugh about it. That’s what I am here for. It’s what I do. If you happen to agree with my point of view and are the type to try and do something about it, good for you. Go get ’em tiger. I’ll be rooting for you with every fiber of my heart, even as I know with every cell in my brain that you will fail.
Papa Riah
Technorati Tags: Society, Sex, Television
Technorati Tags: sex, society, television
Ever wonder if people can tell when you are lying? If it’s obvious because it’s whenever your lips are moving, I probably can’t help you. But if you really want to know the secrets of being a good liar keep reading. This is something that a majority of the population does well, so why not you? Why should you be burdened with always telling the awful, ugly truth? Spruce up your conversation with a few good lies instead. People will think you are a lot cooler than you know you are deep down.