| softy54534 |
09-16-2006 07:00 AM |
Speaking of not being interested in what does or does not come to some posters pitifully small minds, another case in point.
Quote:
you people are obsessed, there is no other word to describe this phenomenon.
"Obsessions are ideas that the person cannot stop thinking about." wikipedia...
this combined with
"Lying and blaming are so basic to society that it is hard to formally study them. George Lakoff, in criticizing some claims of George W. Bush made prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, notes that "Are they lies - or are they merely exaggerations, misleading statements, mistakes, rhetorical excesses and so on. Linguists study such matters. The most startling finding is that, in considering whether a statement is a lie, the least important consideration for most people is whether it is true! The more important considerations are, Did he believe it? Did he intend to deceive? Was he trying to gain some advantage or to harm someone else? Is it a serious matter, or a trivial one? Is it "just" a matter of political rhetoric? Most people will grant that, even if the statement happened to be false, if he believed it, wasn't trying to deceive, and was not trying to gain advantage or harm any one, then there was no lie. If it was a lie in the service of a good cause, then it was a white lie. If it was based on faulty information, then it was an honest mistake. If it was just there for emphasis, then it was an exaggeration."
"These have been among the administration's defenses. The good cause: liberating Iraq. The faulty information: from the CIA. The emphasis: enthusiasm for a great cause. Even though there is evidence that the President and his advisers knew the information was false, they can deflect the use of the L-word. The falsehoods have been revealed and they, in themselves, do not matter much to most people."
The philosopher Leo Strauss, who had a major influence on many of the figures in the Project for a New American Century who dominated the administration during this period, stressed the necessity of lying in order to conceal a strategic position, or to aid diplomacy. So did earlier figures in political philosophy from Niccolo Machiavelli to Plato's "noble lie".
It seems extremely unlikely that lies will ever be entirely eliminated from politics or diplomacy, just as they cannot be removed from the warfare that these activities are, ultimately, supposed to help pre-empt."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie
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