Lying -> Stealing -> Killing
( LSK )
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by Hénock Gugsa
This morning, I woke up with a nagging thought on what could be at the root of the world’s problems. In my humble opinion, it is the deadly combination of lying, stealing, and killing that has taken over practically all aspects of our lives from birth to death. But, going even deeper, we find that the real foundation (the ‘bud’) of all our troubles is LYING !
We all remember from our high-school geometry lessons that a three-sided polygon is known as a triangle. Further, we learned that there are six types of triangles … equilateral, acute, obtuse, scalene, isosceles, and right-angle.
But, the polygon of interest to our discussion here is the equilateral triangle - a triangle with all three sides equal and the internal angles are also equal. For reasons that will soon become clear or obvious, I have labeled the sides of the triangle as: L (for lying), S (for stealing), and K (for killing).
Lying:
Amazingly, the root cause of all our social and societal ailments has simple beginnings … little untruths in early childhood.
Lying is not innate, but rather an acquired (learned) habit. It can be squelched early on thru good parenting and tutelage, or it can be overlooked, forgiven and excused. This is the time when correct choices should be made by adults in a society. They should take their responsibility seriously ... to guide and to keep the youth on the right path. Furthermore, children's education should include serious discussion and understanding of morality.
Stealing:
Walk a few paces from “lying”, and you shall find yourself in the “stealing” zone. Here is where denial, the ultimate form of lying, comes into play. One lies about the small things as well as the big. Worst of all, one does not only lie to others, but one lies to the self as well … constantly and convincingly! It is a hopeless and heartrendingly sad state because it is also seriously injurious to the victims. The level of lying here is where the liar is self-empowered to excuse thefts and other forms of personal violations (fraud and abuse of trust). No distinction is made between right and wrong. Here, the big time players are the thieves, the rapists, the con-artists, the investment bankers, the sleazy lawyers, the corrupt politicians, et al. It is a given - There is no nobility in the deeds of these sociopathic liars and thieves. I would also contend that these robbers don’t always steal out of necessity or need. Rather, it seems that some of the motivation may just be self-driven moral depravity.
Killing:
The final stage in this chain of moral decrepitude is the big-time crime arena of “killing”. We are now at the point of no return where the acts of lying and stealing have to be justified with some perverse and final act, namely “killing” (or murder if you wish). All types of arguments are given to excuse the act of “killing”, including strangely enough self-defense. At no time anywhere do we hear anyone say: The cause of the killing was greed and denial (stealing) of the victims’ basic Civil Rights: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness!
On a larger scale, of-course, we see nations behave as individuals do. A country may go to war (organized mass "killing”) using the justification of national defense, or the elimination of national security threats both at home and abroad. In war, naturally, the first casualty is TRUTH. Lying pundits and propagandists thrive and flourish in this period. To be sure, the real reason(s) for war may never be clear-cut or well-defined. But the beneficiaries are not necessarily hidden to us. We have all heard of large military-industrial complexes in general terms and of Halliburton in particular.
Conclusion:
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In Ethiopia, a tale is told of a mother who could see no wrong in her one and only son. She had always excused his little fibs. When he grew to adolescence, his fibs had grown to lies; but his mother still overlooked his wrong ways. As he grew to manhood, his lies grew even bigger … he was not only lying to others, he was now also lying to himself. Thus, he was excusing all wrong-doings with his lies and self-deceptions. Finally, he reached the point where his stealing and robbing turned to killing. He was apprehended for a murder he had committed; and he was sentenced to death. On the day of his execution at the gallows, he looked down at the crowd below and saw his mother there crying her her heart out. In that moment of critical finality and clarity, he began to sob as he spoke the following words to her: “Oh, dear mother. Are those tears really for me now? But where were you when I was a little boy and I was telling those little fibs? Where were you when I got older and told big lies? And where were you when I started to steal? Why did you never stop me even once? Why didn't you punish me? Alas, it is too late now, mother! Your tears now are way too late!”
It seems self-evident to me that things do not happen without a reason. There is always a cause … and that cause has a beginning in a time past …. A progression (or sequence of developments) leads to the morphing of states. Thus what started out as small fibs (white lies) gradually grow to big time lying, and stealing, ... and ultimately to killing!
We need to be alert and attentive to our surroundings. We need to be responsible parents, and citizens.
We need to recognize and condemn MENDACITY when we encounter it!
We need to, as Barney Fife would say, nip this thing in the bud!
