Lies and Exaggerations Think about this, much of what we hear about things is lies and exaggerations. It is getting hard to know what is true and what is not. On top of all this we can’t blame everyone who tells us a lie or exaggeration because they may not even know it and are only quoting something they heard or read. I am going to cite a story which was told to me by a fellow worker again. He had read a story in a newspaper which states a gorilla was going through a village in Africa and knocking on doors looking for a lost child. I said flat out I didn’t believe it, but he said it was in a very reputable newspaper. The next day a retraction came out. The thing is not every lie in a newspaper is ever retracted, in fact most are not. Did our ancient ancestors have this problem? It seems they did because many wanted to look like winners in battles and such so some would write completely different facts about a battle or war. We then would read these ancient records and get defective history. It happened a lot. Nobody likes to lose, but the rich and powerful more so. No king wants anyone to think they were a loser if they can help it, so many adopted the philosophy of changing history by changing historical narratives so their subjects and future races would remember them as great leaders, sometimes greater than they really were. There are some unusual stories about what some kings did and they might be true, but maybe not. The bible talks about King Ahab of Israel. It states King Ahab went into battle wearing ordinary clothes and thus disguised himself. It is probably true and so many things in the bible when investigated turn out to be correct. I sometimes wonder if archaeologists put too much credibility into ancient records. Just because an ancient record might say something spectacular, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is true. The same is true for finding ancient places. Take for example Atlantis. How many times has there been claims it has been found? It has got to the point where if someone says they found it I think, year sure, prove it. There have even been objects found which some archaeologists say depict Atlantis like an ancient Greek bowl, but does it really? Probably not, but for the sake of argument let us say it does. Does this mean Atlantis was a real place, or could the bowl just be honoring Plato’s story? There are missing historical documents which if found would no doubt be classified as true, but should we declare they contain true facts without comprehensive study and looking for other documents which back up what they say? Different authorities state there are some very important missing ancient documents, but they don’t all contain what many of us would think of as historical facts. Some are ancient poems, some are ancient Greek plays, and some are even animal fables. One of the missing objects is said to be an 11,000 volume on the Ming Dynasty, and only 3 percent survives today. I would think anything recorded which is political, would be full of misrepresentations, but also with some true facts. The older the document, the harder it would be to figure out what is true and what is not. Even today we are told so much by government officials which is not true. If we look back to the start of the second world war, we hear Hitler saying Poland attacked Germany, but the truth was German soldiers dressed in Polish military uniforms staged it. The Russians claimed Nazis had taken over Ukraine and that was why they invaded. No thought was given to the fact the president was Jewish and the claims were all false. Putin told his people he would win in about 3 days, but the war just grinds on and Ukraine is being reduced to rubble even though the Ukranians are said to be winning. Many believe this is also not true, they believe it is more of a stalemate. When the Cuban Missile crisis started, the Soviets said they were sending only defensive weapons to Cuba but as we know it turned out they were sending missiles which could carry nuclear warheads. When Kennedy got them out it was said to be a great victory, but was it that great? We had to remove our missiles from Turkey. Today China is saying they have a base in Cuba, will it start the same crisis over again, this time with a much weaker president? One of the most famous liars in modern times was Charles Ponzi. He became so famous a criminal scheme was named after him. He had promised investors they could make an incredible return on their investments with him. He then gave some great returns to a few people on top of the pyramid scheme and the others saw it and gave him their money. Bernie Madoff was able to pull off the same scheme years later for quite a while before he was finally sent to prison. On the lighter side, there is a liar’s competition. It is held in Cumbria, England and people compete to see who can tell the biggest whopper. Each contestant gets 5 minutes to tell the biggest and most convincing lie. Some people have what I think of as a sickness, but not all will agree. I knew someone who constantly told lies about everything and these lies could be about the most unimportant of things and he never would admit he lied. These types of people are called pathological liars. I guess to figure out who the world’s biggest liar was, we might have to figure what lie caused the most damage to the world. It was probably either Hitler, Stalin or maybe even Napoleon. There has been an ongoing disagreement about this. All were liars, Stalin had promised a red utopia, but the Soviet Union was far from that. Some say Hitler killed more people if we count the Holocaust, which we must, but others say if we count the many millions not only killed in the war, but all those killed in camps and gulags Stalin killed even more. I can’t settle this argument, but I can say they were both the devil incarnate and devoted liars. While the Nazis were killing innocent people the Soviets were also on their side and allies until the Nazis double-crossed them, then magically they became allies of the United States.
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