"No more foreign wars" and "I alone can fix the economy"
I can't figure out if these were intentional lies or simply delusions of grandeur. Surely anyone running for public office wouldn't make such outrageous claims if he didn't believe them. And I can't help wondering how his supporters are feeling as they watch the foreign war he started damage the economy, not only ours but the entire world. Do his supporters feel betrayed, dismayed, puzzled? Or are they bending the current facts to fit his claims?
This leads me to wonder how and why we--ordinary people--cling to our ideas, despite contrary evidence. Or, how long does it take for us to shift, to begin to doubt those "truths" on which we have based our lives? Some of us seem to take a dramatic leap into change, while others refuse to test their beliefs. Still others will analyze all evidence, even if they then return to what they have always believed, to those they have always trusted.
And that brings me around to those individuals who constantly and consistently lie to make their way in the world. Those who massage facts or create them to fulfill their dreams of who they are, and what they represent. Those few who come to believe as "true" the very lies they have created. If they back down, does that represent a collapse of their whole persona, a destruction of their carefully created world view? If so, they must never admit they might have been wrong, or their whole world will crumble around them.
What is our role? Do we allow them to continue to spread those false creations without calling them out? Or do we challenge them, thus endangering their continued sanity, but saving our own?
