lies

Denial and self deception are the opposite of awareness and the central cause of mental breakdown and social collapse.

official stories
Every society's core technology is the shared stories that create common values. When people value ideas, things and activities similarly they understand each other, co-operate, love allies, hate enemies, vote, pay bills, wear clothes, respect authorities, fill out forms, follow traffic signs and turn up to work and church on time. Like schools of fish or flocks of birds swirling in formation.

News, laws, research, sermons, theories, books and speeches flood public consciousness. When these stories become built into the landscape and the language they turn into facts and just walking the streets and speaking the language rehearses them.

deception
Official stories distribute power, privileges and access to the public purse. Interest groups and businesses compete to hi-jack the stories. A story does not have to be true to spread and communities are continually deceived into activities that are not in their interest.

denial
Most of us know of official corruption, deceptions and illusions within our own circles. But few rock the boat until that becomes fashionable especially when jobs are on the line. It is unpleasant to spoil the party or upset the hosts. Habits of looking the other way, and polite not noticing are the good manners that enable the obvious to remain invisible. Silence is discretely bought and sold. What is common knowledge in private may have to be overlooked in public. Truth is treason in a land of lies.

But when a nation hides information from itself it loses the feedback to plan, organise and see where it is going. Deception can become all consuming and exhausting. A nation in denial can shut down vital functions and become sick just like a person in denial.

The tipping point is when we start to believe our own propaganda. Disaster can creep up unawares. Invisible until events ignore expectations and the obvious becomes too large to ignore.

A society is its ignorance and self deception as much as its knowledge. Its taboos as much as its technology. Just like an individual.

too late
The side menu examines some of the reasons regulators work so hard on unlikely threats and miss inevitable disasters. As a rule by the time conservation begins the place has been logged, species have vanished, the dunes have washed out to sea and the river is dry. Trucks are carting sand and regulators and entrepreneurs are squabbling over taxes, licenses and credits to make money out of what's left.

Liquidators usually come through the door after the money has gone. After winning every engagement suddenly the war is lost, our reputation is in tatters and we are pulling out. Officially everyone is taken by surprise even though the alarm was sounding for years and it was old news in primary schools. Real activity seems only possible after the event. After the roof collapses in front of everyone. After everyone has taken their cut. After yet another bill has been forwarded to the next generation. Too late.

experts
Experts are not always impartial. Financial and social incentives influence expert opinions to conform with commercial and political interests. Professionals are often so busy making money that they are dangerously out of touch with current knowledge in their field and with the wider world.

Expertise is often corrupted. Legal professionals are high on the list of those who circumvent the law, environmental scientists rubber stamp pollution, psychiatrists have one of the highest suicide rates, doctors tend to burn out. The list goes on.

knowledge is power
When we hero-worship authorities and adopt official stories over the evidence of our senses, we stop being ourselves and thinking our own thoughts. And we are unprepared when the real world disregards the stories.

Individuals, families, tribes and nations only have control when they know what is happening. The awareness therapy pages suggest pathways to awareness and experiencing the world more clearly. The media page has links to help work out what is really going on.

copyright (C) John Brasted 2008
updated 7. Nov. 2011

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