Lying as you go up the ladder?
When was it the last time that you lied? Indeed an embarrassing question as we all see ourselves as honest and one with overflowing integrity! Although we come across people who lie without even batting an eyelid, I do suppose that lying does make one uncomfortable even if one is a compulsive liar! A lie can be perceived differently depending upon the source of the lie. If there was a lie meter that could measure the degree of lie, it would show that every lie can have differing levels of acceptability. There are some who tell a lie sans any overt display of emotions. Seasoned Politicians come in this category. Some lie but show their discomfort by either a twitch of the facial muscles or an unsteady set of eyes! Green horns stepping into the big bad world are the prime examples! Some get caught as soon as they let off their lie! These are the first timers who have a huge conscience weighing on them! And then is the Gambler’s lie when he sits poker faced! He squirms if he tells a truth!
"People in power are able to lie better," said Dana Carney, a management professor at Columbia Business School and one of the co-authors of the study. "It just doesn't hurt them as much to do it."
The more one thinks about what Professor D Carney says, the more one realizes how true it is of us Indians! Right from our childhood we are fed with the idea that lying is an unwanted and unacceptable habit and should be abhorred and kept at an arms length. So, every time we were late to school, we bit our lips and closed our eyes and fought our conscience as we told some excuse which was something of a hybrid truth! Half lie and half truth! We would console ourself that we did not tell lies…only hid some truth! And on many an occasion we would face the corporal punishment as we had to tell the truth!
But looking at some of the Power clad persons of today, we do question ourself that perhaps it was indeed a silly thing to stick to the truth and faced the cain of our school teacher?
Lying has become an art, perhaps. And as the professor says, the higher up one is in the hierarchy, the easier it is to pull a fast one! Obviously, the listener has no option but to accept! When we hear Mayawati talking about the upliftment of the masses, we know the truth and the reality behind the statement! When we hear Mulayam and Laloo go gaga over the achievements of each other, we also clap like fools! This is not because we know not what the heart says but because we have no option to pretend to be a fool.
Like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we can actually make a Hierarchy of lies!
This in terms of acceptance. Blatant Lies from the top has a great chance of being accepted with a smile whilst a small one coming from the bottom has a great chance of being scrutinized and looked at with suspicion! That is exactly why bosses get away with lies whilst the poor front office clerk is grilled till he turns black!
What happens if my boss reads this?
Who wrote this?
Search me!
