Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Today's Deep Insight



It's about that Mark Twain saying: "A lie can travel around the world
while the truth is just putting on its shoes."

Everyone gets what the saying means, right away. But in fact Twain doesn't tell us why Truth is so slow getting started. Does Lie run with bare feet? Do Truth's shoes have loads and loads of those little buttons you have to close with a button hook?

Or is it simply that Truth plays the defense here and will only react after Lie has carried out an attack? This might be what Twain meant: Truth is disorganized, not expecting the audacity of the Lie, and this is why putting shoes on takes so much time. Truth was probably snoring away in its bed just a second ago.

I prefer the buttoned boots alternative myself, and maybe that's what Twain meant, too. Truth, especially when chasing Lie, requires more explanation, more evidence and more time to explain the evidence, and all those are like the zillion little buttons in Victorian boots. Lie, on the other hand, can just make up soundbites.

That's one deep insight I offer today. It was motivated by me surfing blogs and realizing that many of the ones which looked most fun and interesting are largely based on simplifications and propaganda. The light feet of Lies?

The other insight I offer is this: If Truth is putting on high heels in that saying she can forget about ever catching up with Lie. Now meditate on that!*
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*I think that requires a clarification: Any woman trying to tell the truth while obeying old-fashioned rules about how much aggression women can show is gonna lose. But then showing aggression makes you lose, too. ommm.