Craziness

by Kurt DuNard The Exceptional Life Coach

In a world gone mad, the sane man will appear crazy.

Have you noticed that something has changed in the world? The most respected world leaders, financial institutions, and halls of learning seem to have discovered that it is okay to not fully disclose the truth. It seems that if the institution is at risk, the truth can be sacrificed. Some of these people are not shy about it, they are downright liars.

If you define madness as a loss of awareness of true reality, then whole nations can be defined as mad. They go to war against nuclear terrorists that have no bombs. They trust that their financial institutions are making sane decisions by investing in safe low risk securities but instead invest in derivatives that cause them to go bankrupt. They think their CEO cares about them, their country and their company, but then he or she fires 5,000 employees and moves the manufacturing to China. People are being manipulated with a false reality so that leaders can get their way with as little opposition as possible. A false reality is our definition of madness.

What do we do when we are faced with all this mendacity? Do we join the liars and become liars ourselves? As our leaders tell us lies, many have come to the conclusion that everyone tells lies and that it is okay to lie as long as it is a “white” lie. The sad thing about lying is that the liar eventually believes his or her own lies. The lies become a false reality for the liar. False reality is our definition of madness. Lying is NOT okay as it causes craziness. Even “white” lies are NOT okay.

So in a world of liars, the truth teller will appear crazy. Who has been telling us the truth and whom do we only reward by calling them conspiracy theorists? You will have to find the answer to that question yourself.

It is my contention that the more that truth is not held in high esteem and the more that lying becomes the norm, then that is when our culture starts acting on falsehood and starts making all the wrong decisions. We become blinded to what is right and wrong and are like the crazy man that does not know when to get out of the rain. Our insanity was inflicted on ourselves by our leaders believing their own lies. Of course we can’t make the right decision when we must vote for the bill if we want to know what is in the bill.

In a world of insanity, how does the sane man bring it back to sanity? By creating a culture of veracity and truth. By holding TRUTH as a sacred ideal. We need to hold lying in derision and call it out each time. We need to expect truth, demand truth, and not let our leaders hide behind unneeded secrecy. Transparency promotes truth. As our courts used to ask of the witness, “The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God,” that is what we must demand of our leaders and ourselves—The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help us God. Otherwise, the penalty is living in an insane world. As truth goes out the window, so does trust.

Without trust, people can’t even stop at an intersection without road rage and condemnation. If you can’t trust even for people to stop at a red light, then you can’t trust that it is okay to go on the green. If we can’t trust the accounting practices of an Enron or a Greek government, then we can’t trust to invest in a corporation or a government bond. If our child can’t trust that we will pick him up on time after his basketball practice, then we should not be surprised when we discover he wasn’t at the library on Saturday night and instead was at a wild party. Trust goes down as prevarication goes up. And as trust goes down with an increase in lying then we see a disease form that causes insanity. One little lie is a vector to start another little lie and then another lie and pretty soon we have a pandemic of lies and the whole world is becoming mad.

Be the sane person that appears crazy in a mad lying world. Be a compulsive truth teller. It is the only way to bring back civilization.

 

Copyright © 2011Kurt W. DuNard All Rights Reserved
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