On Lies

It seems to me that the real "fall of man" happened when lies became a conscious technique in political and social strategy---gaining "knowledge" was more about the rise than the fall of man.

Some people are both liars and stupid, some are both liars and smart. Modern political strategists are full of lies, the Big Media lies consciously, the business world and the academic world have the same mix of liars. But even religions purposely lie.

A Muslim is permitted to to lie if in so doing he protects or furthers the interests of Islam, as long as he remains faithful to Islam, it's called taqiyya. The Babylonian Talmud encourages Jews to cheat and deceive Gentiles whenever necessary. Do the ethnic groups which affirm these religions take on these qualities, or do these religious qualities derive first from the ethnic groups? People create cultures, cultures do not first create people.

I suppose real Christian's lie a bit less because it is believed that craving material power and possessions is what causes Christians to lie, which real Christians are supposed to give up. This puts Christians at a disadvantage socially and politically in the face of smart liars, even though there are few Christians who carry their Christianity that far. And there is also that ethnic element in Western civilization becoming Christian.

The big question is how can we develop a healthy culture given this mix of liars and truth tellers? My position is that religions and ethnic groups need to have their own regions and states which can then be protected with federalism. That sounds difficult but there are far more difficulties in trying to have a great multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious mix attempting to live in the same territory---even totalitarian dictatorships can't make that work. 

This would be easier to see if we weren't lied to so much.