When no one trusts, does it matter that everyone lies?
I just saw this quote on a bumper sticker website and it really hit home in relation to my novel's premise.
Like many people in this universe, the two main characters live their lives in different states of reality. They have thier public persona's, which they have worked on to define for publicity and sale - sort of like an actor/actress creating a character that they continue to be so long as their contract and popularity live on. They have their semi-personal lives which is about as private as people living on a reality show, but still a bit affected by choice. They have their personal lives, how they behave with family and close friends, and they have their inner selves.
Then we have the internet, which is the media source for everything - and nobody really knows (or cares) whose persona is real, and when they are acting for a show, or when things are really happening to them. Some people stage accidents to get more hits on their websites, some people have unneeded surgery, others make up lies about their past or get themselves thrown in jail on purpose... Many people lie about others and that is why....
The court of law does not accept personal testimony anymore. Eye witness or character witnesses are a thing of the past. There is only camera visuals and sometimes DNA evidence, though most will not believe the doctors and scientists are paid off. People don't trust anyone, but they trust their own eyes. Everyone knows that camera CGI effects (aka digital stand ins) can fool their eyes, so the only kind of camera's that are accepted in court are those that are date stamp encoded with untamperable security codes. And everyone who has the money injects their children with life long identity markers that are used to tell not just who a person is, but where they are and what their vitals happen to be. If a video is messed with, or the perp or victim don't have an identity marker -it's thrown out - so there is a very high value placed on Shadow Video camera footage.
Anyway - the idea struck me, that the more in our society we lose trust in someone's testimony because so many people are disingenous liars, the less it really matters to us that someone is lying. It's easy to accept that someone isn't telling us the truth if we already don't trust anyone.
It's really sad how much lying can hurt us. All we have is our word, and once someone loses faith, it's very difficult to get it back. Imagine an entire society where faith is gone - no trust in anyone - the expectation of deception. How hard would it be to get people to trust in someone... who would they trust? What kind of person would it take to convince an entire society full of liars to believe in an unprovable truth?
Julia
Like many people in this universe, the two main characters live their lives in different states of reality. They have thier public persona's, which they have worked on to define for publicity and sale - sort of like an actor/actress creating a character that they continue to be so long as their contract and popularity live on. They have their semi-personal lives which is about as private as people living on a reality show, but still a bit affected by choice. They have their personal lives, how they behave with family and close friends, and they have their inner selves.
Then we have the internet, which is the media source for everything - and nobody really knows (or cares) whose persona is real, and when they are acting for a show, or when things are really happening to them. Some people stage accidents to get more hits on their websites, some people have unneeded surgery, others make up lies about their past or get themselves thrown in jail on purpose... Many people lie about others and that is why....
The court of law does not accept personal testimony anymore. Eye witness or character witnesses are a thing of the past. There is only camera visuals and sometimes DNA evidence, though most will not believe the doctors and scientists are paid off. People don't trust anyone, but they trust their own eyes. Everyone knows that camera CGI effects (aka digital stand ins) can fool their eyes, so the only kind of camera's that are accepted in court are those that are date stamp encoded with untamperable security codes. And everyone who has the money injects their children with life long identity markers that are used to tell not just who a person is, but where they are and what their vitals happen to be. If a video is messed with, or the perp or victim don't have an identity marker -it's thrown out - so there is a very high value placed on Shadow Video camera footage.
Anyway - the idea struck me, that the more in our society we lose trust in someone's testimony because so many people are disingenous liars, the less it really matters to us that someone is lying. It's easy to accept that someone isn't telling us the truth if we already don't trust anyone.
It's really sad how much lying can hurt us. All we have is our word, and once someone loses faith, it's very difficult to get it back. Imagine an entire society where faith is gone - no trust in anyone - the expectation of deception. How hard would it be to get people to trust in someone... who would they trust? What kind of person would it take to convince an entire society full of liars to believe in an unprovable truth?
Julia
posted by Julia | 8:52 PM
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