Can You Imagine A World Without Deception & Lies?

Is there anyone who knows the truth? We live in a world where knowledge has increased exponentially in the past fifty years, but finding the truth is getting more difficult by the day. Deception clouds almost all information now, leaving us dumbfounded and scratching our heads.

It is not really about stupidity, since even the brightest people can be deceived. When smart people are deceived, things just get more complicated. Making things convoluted is one of the key features of deceptive practices. Or better yet, pick complicated subjects, and those who are inclined to lie, can have themselves a heyday.

In my own experience with lies and delusions, there are certain truths that are irrevocable. Some of the most clear-cut truths are things registered with the Department of Vital Statistics. Births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and adoptions – are all part of the vital statistics in Canada. People may want to deny or invent alterations surrounding these basic societal standards or facts, but it does not change the truth of what has been recorded.

You may wish you had not married someone, but if you did – it becomes an incontrovertible fact. You may want someone to be your daughter (for some strange reason), but to claim an adoption that never happened is an outright and brazen lie. Or else it could be classified as a mental illness or delusion. It is no different than some nut claiming to be married to Madonna. It is in the same genre of falsehoods, and wishful or delusional thinking.

The importance of vital statistics cannot be under estimated, since this information is part of the record keeping surrounding every person’s existence, genetics and lineage. Otherwise we would be blotted out of our own family tree for all eternity. Just as people should not be stolen, nor should they be erased. A person might get away with stealing a child, or claiming ownership when they objectify another person, but anyone who attempts to erase another human being, is a murderer at heart.

No matter how many times a lie is repeated, it does not change who begat who. This kind of record keeping goes back to Biblical times. In ancient times – stealing people was a real problem. I have read in various places over the years, that the eighth commandment “thou shalt not steal” was originally written as a warning not to steal people. Of course it also refers to stealing material things, copyright, and all other forms of theft. Stealing people has to top all other forms of chicanery though, as far as being a thief is concerned.

Other truths are fairly straight forward based on what we can see, observe, learn, and accept as being true. We can check the weather report and compare it to a thermometer outside. We don’t dispute wind, rain, heat, or snow – because we can see, feel, and hear those things. We know a dog is a dog, and an onion is an onion, just based on learning a language.

It gets much trickier to discern truth from fiction when it comes to religion, science, and politics. These are areas that are rife with misconceptions, propaganda, and intentional deceptions. Some day we will find out – how wrong we have been on so many topics.

I certainly don’t have the answers when it comes to overcoming deception, but I do know it is important to seek the truth. Even so, we can easily be deceived. We have to ask ourselves some key questions in the process of seeking the truth. Whatever we end up believing, is part of an individual journey. Truth cannot be forced. It either is – or it is not. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to accept or reject the truth. The same holds true for accepting and rejecting lies. The choice is ours to make. Our fate is embodied in the choices we make.

We might chuckle at the frequently quoted “hell is other people” by Jean Paul Sartre, and see it as being an intellectual or philosophical truism. However this bit of sardonic wisdom was excerpted from the play “Huis Clos or No Exit”. The plot was based upon three people who were trapped in hell, and began confessing their sins to one another. As a result, they became involved in a bizarre love triangle. They soon found out they were not alone, but under the scrutiny and tongue clucking judgement of the other people who were in hell with them. So you can see how the “hell is other people” quote came about. The outlook is a bit different, if you read it within the context of the story and intended meaning.

To begin with, we can question why someone might be motivated to lie, or set up a con and repeat it many times. The more a lie is repeated, the more likely it is to be considered factual. If we delve into the story lines, the history, and the context, the motives are not always clear. But profit motive, self-protection, avoiding detection, and self-exaltation – all contribute to the galaxy of crossed motives that drive human behaviours.

We cannot deny the fact there is much deception in this world. In my own life, a high school teacher, in collusion with my older brother, cooked up an adoption con when I was close to graduating. It is easy to prove there was no adoption. Yet they used brute force to establish the lies, and then repeated the adoption lie for more than forty years. Every single time I tried to refute it, they retaliated and punished me. In fact, it remains that way to this day.

So how do we deal with deception, delusions, and outright lies? I can only respond in hindsight, but I should have found a way to put a stop to it at the onset. What can a teenage girl do when up against that kind of abuse of power? I repeatedly said no to the teacher, but after I was pounced on and stifled, I just shut up about it as a matter of self-preservation.

If I was ever asked about it, I would pointedly reply, “I don’t care what they say – it did not happen. I was not adopted, nor I was I ever up for adoption”. I was stymied by the lies because I actually thought everyone already knew I was not adopted. I had siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins in that small farming community. I barely knew the teacher. He was a young new grad new to the town and school, and very much the hotshot super religious tough guy. Try to imagine the absurdity and isolation for me, spending my whole life with this background saga, trying to prove I was not adopted by the dick head teacher?

Most people get to leave their teachers behind, whether they like them or not. At least that is the way it should be. Imagine your worst teacher nightmare from your school days? Then think about that person claiming ownership over your life, your family life, your spiritual beliefs, and your career. It is like trying to lift yourself out of the swamp, to scrape barnacles, and green slime off your soul.

My voice was repeatedly silenced, and was not loud enough to begin with. I was silenced because of the fear of more attacks, threat of violence at the time, shaming, blaming, scapegoating, nightly brain washing sessions, threats of expulsion from my own family (the biggest one), and accusations of being mentally ill. I had no real escape route.

Over the years, every time I dug in my heels, and announced I wanted nothing more to do with the teacher and his faux adoption claims, I was immediately called “mentally ill”. They have used the “either you go along with it, or you will be declared mentally ill” stick since day one.

My older brother reverted right back to enforcing the mentally ill claim, when I finally made it crystal clear – I was not prepared to put up with the teacher con, or allow the guy to be glommed onto me, for one more minute of my life. That was in 2006 after enduring more than thirty years of the oppressive and damaging con. Since then it has been an uphill battle, and a downward spiral, as far as the attitude toward me is concerned. I can thank big brother for that.

It is clearly not over yet. That is the nature of cons. They just add layer upon layer. How does a person prove their sanity? I will readily admit this has caused me endless strife. All I have ever done to defend myself is to speak the truth about it all – and write about it, to try and get some help or support to get the teacher out of my life. I did not do anything unlawful, or untruthful. It made no difference back in high school, and it still makes no difference. They will not listen.

There is not one organization that will be held accountable for the teacher damages, to include several Ministries in Alberta, the Warburg School, the school board, the Alberta Teacher’s Association, the RCMP, a dubious class action law suit, and Ledcor – the big company that has exalted and promoted my older brother all these years. They could care less if they destroy someone’s life. That is what they intended to do. Don’t be a fool. We are all disposable and dispensable. Some of us are considered to be more throwaway than others. It depends on whether or not you are surrounded with muscle or money. If not, you are less than nothing.

There is no accountability for those with power, when it comes to truth telling. Is it any wonder people become mistrustful, angry, and don’t believe governments or media? I have no doubt that politics, medicine, and religion does have elements of truth, along with many good and honest people in those professions. But they get clouded out in the murky haze of all the deception. Clearly, not all people are honest, and many fall into corruption, for the sake of profits and career climbing.

In my experience as a victim of a con or conspiracy, the first lie was the facade surrounding “what is best for Valerie”. I remember thinking, “Why is this teacher so obsessed with me?” What makes him and my brother think they know what is best for me”? Then I would hear my sister-in-law and her mother crowing about the adoption con, and how the teacher was such a “wonderful Christian”. I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt, they were conspiring to do what they thought was best for themselves, not me.

There are many signs to indicate if something is a con. We are wise to pay attention to those signs. When faced with acknowledging or stopping damaging lies, they will not listen to the victim – even if it is a member of their own family. The imbalance of power between my older brother and I means there is no way of gaining any ground, any truth, or any admission of wrongdoing. The teacher is the family godfather, and I am the outcast. Truth has no relevance whatsoever.

The orders given to all those within this circle and cycle of corruption, is to believe the lies, or get punished. No wonder people in the community, or members of my own family never had the courage to stand up to these lies. My brother is like King Kong. Everyone is afraid of him. He does not intimidate people by accident. He does it on purpose. It is guys like him who are influencing the politicians and control the media. The politicians in my opinion, are either naïve – or in cahoots.

Now more than ever, I do see a burgeoning level of deception in this world. Of course this makes me a “conspiracy theorist”. However, the lifelong subjection to a debilitating con makes my own conspiracy theory a fact, not a theory, because it is easily proven. Obviously, Mr. McNamara did not adopt me six months before I graduated from high school. They can keep lying through their teeth, but it is not going to change the truth, or make them less culpable for their pack of lies.

When it comes to lies, regardless of where they come from, we can do our level best to seek the truth and state it, or set the record straight, but that’s about it. We cannot stay steeped in anger. We cannot get any sort of justice in this lifetime it seems. I will readily admit to getting angry over it all. When I realized how much influence my brother has politically, I was really angry. But now, I know there is no point in being angry. It is futile and a waste of energy. They want to cause emotional distress, so the anger just plays into their hand.

It is almost inconceivable for me to imagine a world without lies. After being subjected to a lifetime of the teacher’s religious indoctrination, how can I disprove any of those cultish religious lies? In reviewing thousands of YouTube videos on various religious beliefs and end times eschatology – my conclusion is that most of it is false doctrine, or mistaken interpretations of the Bible.

Do we find truth in science and medicine? Sure we do. But to think there is no deception, in my opinion, is pure folly. Where there is greed and profit motive, there will be deception. It is as simple as that. There is nothing wrong with making a profit. It is only a problem if the motives are pure greed, combined with deception.

So how do we navigate a world steeped in deception? We can’t argue using facts. Facts only work if those with power choose to acknowledge them. We can’t argue by citing the laws. Liars could care less about the laws, if they have the power to evade them. Everyone knows teachers are not supposed to stalk and chase teenage girls using a faux adoption claim to cover their crimes. But that is exactly what happened, with many witnesses, and a lifelong con to prove it. So what? Who cares? No one does.

If laws and facts cannot disprove a con – what can? The media? That’s almost laughable these days. So how can people discern truth in order to live their best life? The harsh reality is that if you really are committed to truth, you will have many struggles in life. Truth seeking makes for a rocky road. It is much easier to go along with a con than to buck the system. It is much easier to accept the rewards and dodge the punishment. I too, have to admit to being a compliant coward for many years.

When we are told to trust our gut, or pay attention to our intuition – that is probably the best advice ever given. I believe every single one of us is deceived in more ways than we can conceive of. We might have swallowed lies surrounding religious doctrine. This is a very important lie to overcome since it defines what we believe about God. We might be faced with religious indoctrination with no basis in truth, set up on a false foundation. We might be betrayed by the people around us, or deceived about science, medicine, politics or climate change.

No one has the answers to the problem of deception and fraud. The minute you think you have the answers, there is punishment and backlash if you do bring forward the truth, even about your own existence. There are millions of ways to deceive people. In most cases deception occurs with a mixture of truth and lies. If a document is sprinkled with a combination of truth and lies, people are more inclined to believe all of it, including the lies. If a wolf in sheep’s clothing looks and acts somewhat normal, and flourishes under the cloak of religion, many people will believe him without further questioning.

If a plan is based on foundational lies, it means every building block added to the original lies, is built on a crumbling foundation. If the media is not reporting news, but instead tells us what to believe, and then shames those who don’t believe it, that’s not news. It is propaganda. The news articles are at the point of contributing so much deception in the world, they contradict and expose themselves all day long. If you quote last week’s news, you will be accused of spreading misinformation. One critical difference between truth and lies – is that truth is constant. Lies change every time the wind blows. Lies evolve to suit the deceptive narrative and dispel objections. Truth has no such agenda.

We are living in an era of increasingly complex layers of lies and strong delusion. Conspiracy theorists are considered to be nut cases, but if that is true, anyone who thinks conspiracies don’t exist, must have fallen into the deepest pit of delusion. How can anyone not be a conspiracy theorist? All of history points to endless examples of conspiracies, trickery, traps and deceptions.

What is the value of our lives? Jesus was betrayed for money. Shouldn’t that tell us something? Our lives are like the half-cent sparrows. When it comes to deception, we are worthless, or more aptly put – we are only worth what they can get out of us, what they can use and exploit us for. After that, we are discarded. To top it off, they expect us to be filled with gratitude for their schemes.

Truthfully the nature of deception – is the pathway to destruction. In the end we implore – who will it destroy? Will deception destroy the truth-seekers? Or will it destroy the liars? That too – depends on what you believe in. For me, trying to imagine a world without lies, is like imagining a world without night or darkness.

I look forward to the day we are free of lies. There will be no more arguments, no more false accusations, no need for conflict, and no more punishment for speaking the truth. The shoe will finally be on the other foot.

Those with power, the people stealers, the health deceivers, the religious con artists, the corporate masters, and the media propagandists – will all be exposed some day. They really hate the concept of accountability. But as sure as the sun rises and sets, as sure as there is order in the cosmos – so too, there will be a time when lies go by the wayside, and truth will endure.

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2021). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.