John Jordan is an independent freelance writer living on a small farm in Chatham-Kent which doubles as a Bed and Breakfast.

 

It has been a few years since I have had the Opportunity I to spin a tale or two about subjects near and dear to me.

Some of those subjects include food (just look at me, I don't miss many meals), rural life, friends, travel and occasionally politics from a worldly point-of-view.Yes, as I write, an election campaign is going on and it is not my intention to stick my nose into any of the views from the stump with the exception of one common element and the subject of today's diatribe.  LIES!

There are many truths written about this topic. I like "figures can lie and liars can figure" and there is a related one; "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

So what is a liar? An anonymous source says it is "one who te//s an unpleasant truth."

Some of my farm friends have the knack at the craft of lying too. Another saw states; "It pays to have gates on all your fields; at seeding time you let acres in and at harvest you let acres out." In many cases with the size of planting equipment today, it is difficult for this out-to-pasture farmer to know if the young pups are telling the truth or not about how many acres they planted in a day.

Which brings me to how you can tell if someone is lying to you. No, it is not if you see their lips moving. Heard that one too many times. It has more to do with the way the statement comes out and the intention of the speaker. Does he/she want to convince you about something you know little of? If that is the case, the perpetrator has an easy job. I visited a car dealership the other day and listened to a car salesman proudly state that, "this car is so popular that you could throw a big bag of money at me and I couldn't get you one." Boy did I wish I had that bag just waiting for him so I could see him eat his words. He's a car salesman for heaven's sake! How stupid did he think I was?

What galls me is that some people thrive on telling lies each and every day. In fact, I met a young person a couple years back who was a new friend of my son's.The two of them invited me out to go out on the town as it were and after a couple of hours of elbow flexing at an English pub, I

said to my son, "/ have to go now, just being with that liar is making me tired." As it turned out, my son found out later, to his great disappointment, that this apparent friend's whole life was built on a lie. His military career, his university degree, his subsequent med school, his former employers were all made up.The jig was up when this pathological liar was fired from my son's workplace and the truth came out. My son was devastated that this guy had taken him so far down the path.

Perhaps I am a little more skeptical about things people say. So too are a lot of Canadians. I read with interest, the results of a Sun Media poll conducted by Leger Marketing. It showed that 72% fed-up Canadian voters don't believe politicians any more.The poll shows three-quarters of Canadians interviewed are no longer prepared to swallow the promises they hear from politicians.That's up from 60% during the 2000 federal election. So why do they try to pull these stunts? Because the truth is no longer what the electorate responds to.The shrinking electorate asks for the lies to sway their votes. In other words, we are the crafters of our own demise. We deserve what we get.

And on the other side of the curtain, politicians, before they get elected may say they are going to walk this admirable line of truth, only to find out that to manage the length of their career (read-long enough for a pension) they have to massage the truth in much of what they do.They find out early that, "If you tell the people the truth, how do you expect to get re-elected?"

Makes me think of this one by Mark Twain. "The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a man only tells them with all his might." Now there was a fellow who really knew how to call it.

So enough of the cynicism about something over which I have no control. Cut to the chase you say? Here it is.Truth is evasive. We all could live our lives a lot better with more truth being told but something tells me even that wouldn't work. For one, cynics like me wouldn't believe you.Then we'd be back at square one. But you know, I'd like to try it for just one day to see what it is like.