• Dr George John
  (Dr. George John is a retired British Emeritus Consultant Psychiatrist from London, a freelance essayist living with his wife in Kochi, India. GJ has an interest in the relationship between mental health and religion)

“No matter how big the lie, repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth” – John F Kennedy

Truth and falsehood exist as different modes of communication. While lies are harmful and best avoided, truth has obvious advantages. When influential people speak falsehood, their lie is taken as truth, proliferated and amplified till it becomes a vicious cycle of untruth. Once a lie is repeated and the more outrageous it is, the easier it spreads thus confounding the truth. “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on,” said Churchill.

Human communications are largely influenced by our level of trust and the situations we find ourselves in. We instinctively judge others by our values. Truth is rarely simple but its complex nature is not an excuse for comfortable lies disguised as truth because truth eventually comes to light. Communicating truth, especially controversial ones is best done with gentleness and respect or it may not get the hearing it deserves. “Truth must be given with love or the message and the messenger will be rejected,” said Mahatma Gandhi.

Humanity is generally stubborn. People dislike truths that appear to invalidate their values, beliefs and opinions which makes it difficult to convince others about some truths. Truth speakers may be mocked, dismissed or even worse as Galileo found to his cost for discovering the truth about the heliocentric nature of the solar system. Truths are often first ridiculed and opposed before they become accepted as self-evident. In today’s world of prolific data, fake news and post-truth, it is best to fact-check and verify the information received to ensure that it is not a prefabricated intelligent lie, even when we assume, those we interact with to be trustworthy and sincere. Humans by nature are truth seekers but those who lie often, find repeated lying has inherent inconsistencies and it is hard to keep up the story until the truth comes to light and the process of truth-seeking can cause conflict and distress.

“Trust is built on telling the truth and not telling people what they want to hear because a lie can never become the truth no matter how much it is manipulated. On balance, telling the truth and making someone cry is better than telling a lie and making someone smile. If you tell the truth, it becomes part of your past. If you lie, it becomes part of your future. Denying the truth doesn’t change facts and the difference between truth and falsehood is the same difference between courage and cowardice.”

There can be more than one truth since there is no single absolute truth that is valid and holds good for all people all the time. Khalil Gibran said, “Say not, ‘I have found THE truth’, but rather, ‘I have found A truth.’” It is easier to believe a lie than to accept a truth that doesn’t correspond to our values and perspectives. If we don’t want others to accept our lies, we need to be ready to acknowledge someone else’s truth and by so doing we show respect for another point of view.

By its very nature, absolute truths are elusive, complex and can be larger than our limited means of comprehension while such absolute truths are also liable to change constantly. Hence in practice, truth is mostly good for the “here” and “now”. However, half-truths are in a different class altogether because they are a mixture of fact and fantasy, which can overwhelm people by making it nearly impossible to distinguish between a fact and a falsehood. Outright lies, however, never rests on the firmness of reality.

Even when truth is universal, its perception can vary, and conflict occurs when a person becomes unable to accept that his or her perception of truth is subjective, and can vary from person to person. That is so because our perception of reality is limited to our senses, and our openness to new ideas is restricted, especially when truth and falsehood become subtly intertwined.

Most people don’t lie intentionally. When they do, it becomes a necessity when truth can potentially cause harm or conflict. But truth does relieve us of the burden of making mistakes to keep a lie alive. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything,” said Mark Twain. But when the truth is too difficult, hard to swallow or communicate, many choose the easier path of lying because those pleasant illusions save them from facing the harshness of painful truths, believing it to be easier and necessary. Defending and protecting the truth at all costs becomes a grave struggle for those who insist on seeking truth. Most lies we ever tell will be to ourselves. Remember to tell the truth or someone will say it for you.

“Defending and protecting the truth at all costs becomes a grave struggle for those who insist on seeking truth.”

The truth about cowardice is that in its origin, cowardice is a warrior vice, for letting comrades down. Over time, it lost its warrior connotations aligning lack of cowardice to promise-keeping, truth-telling and mutual support. Truth-telling is considered a high virtue, on par with kindness, even when it is unkind to tell the truth. There is great relevance to existentialism when discussing some Socratic questions, just as when a vegetarian is challenged, they could say that being a vegetarian they are at least trying to play a part in minimising the harm caused by industrial food production.

It has to be asked, when is ‘the truth’ so valuable that it can be allowed to trump illusions that give people comfort while the other side of the equation is to ask if it is acceptable to be happy based on illusions.

The truth can sometimes be scary but its sheer importance makes it easier to swallow. From our earliest youth we are told to tell the truth, but the truth can be complicated and messy. Being true to yourself is also a crucial part of truth. “The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words, the truth”, said Laozi, the ancient philosopher. The truth is still the truth, even if no one believes it. It is wise to try to adjust themselves to the truth while at the same time it is foolish may try to adjust the truth to suit ourselves. Trust is built on telling the truth and not telling people what they want to hear because a lie can never become the truth no matter how much it is manipulated. On balance, telling the truth and making someone cry is better than telling a lie and making someone smile. If you tell the truth, it becomes part of your past. If you lie, it becomes part of your future. Denying the truth doesn’t change facts and the difference between truth and falsehood is the same difference between courage and cowardice.

“Three things cannot be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth” – Buddha