There are people in this world who are so desperate to be proven "right," at least in their own minds, that they would do, or hope for, most anything to achieve those ends. Some of these people are very mentally ill yet they fail to realize or see the shortcomings of their thinking.
CARLY SIMON - YOU'RE SO VAIN
They are the People of the Lie. These people are all around us. They function in our society. We see them daily. These are the bosses at work who extoll the virtues of living right, telling the truth and working hard yet they are having an affair with another woman.
These are the people who claim to be in search of the truth yet they commit lies at work and home. These are the wives and husbands who, on the surface, seem contented but actually commit domestic violence against their spouses and children.
These are the People of the Lie. These are also people who will do most anything or hope for ill fortune against others in order for them to get their desired gains.
The most extreme (traditional and much over-used) example of those sorts of people - people who will do anything to be proven correct - are political groups like the Nazis. These people were so sick that they would even kill others in an effort to be proven correct.
Recent modern day examples of these sorts of people were the hard-core believers in Man-Made Global Warming (AGW). I remember on a very popular morning FM radio show in Tokyo in 2006 when I was debunking the entire theory of AGW - after having Greenpeace members as guests on the program (who couldn't rectify their beliefs with scientific fact) - we received a telephone call from a very irate listener who firmly believed in Man- Made Global Warming. This listener was so furious that I would go on air and publicly debunk this polemic.
He wanted to talk to the boss of the station. It was to his shock when I told him that I was the general manager of the station and if he didn't like what he heard on air there was something on the radio called a "tuner" and he should use it to change the station. He was so furious with that that he threatened to, "Come down to the radio station, set it on fire and burn it to the ground."
I told him that if he did that then we would have, "The police come down to your house, arrest you and send you to prison." Never heard from him again.
I wonder if he still believes that AGW nonsense?
This is the kind of person who I classify as the People of the Lie; they will do anything to be proven correct, even if it means that people must be injured or die (of course not them) in order for that to happen.
The most recent example of this disgusting sickness, in many forms, is the current controversy about radiation from Fukushima. Specifically, how the Fukushima problem affects us in Tokyo, 230 kilometers away.
We've heard all sorts of stories; how Fukushima was going to make 1/3 of Japan uninhabitable; then it was half of Japan; there was going to be a nuclear winter, etc., etc.
I know one guy who, at the start of this entire affair, took his whole family and ran away to southern Japan. It was with glee when he announced on Facebook that they had found two TEPCO workers dead at the damaged reactors. He triumphantly wrote something to the effect of, "See? I was right. You are going to see more and more dead guys like this coming out of there in the next few days and weeks."
It was to his chagrin that I had to alert him to the fact that those two guys were killed because they drowned. When the tsunami hit, they were trapped underground and couldn't escape. Their deaths had nothing to do with radiation. Their bodies were covered in bruises and they had broken bones from being bashed around in a small room when the water came in and there was no way out.
May they rest in peace. Too bad some sick people are happy about their sorry lot.
To date, there haven't been any deaths directly related to radiation at Fukushima. It seems that, like Chernobyl, panic over radiation will cause much more damage than the actual radiation itself.
Yesterday, I wrote a post entitled Results of Geiger Counter Use in Tokyo that was about my factual research using a "professional use" Geiger counter in various places in and around town. I could not find any elevated levels of radiation even though I went to several major areas in this city. The levels were all lower than regular levels in Hong Kong and in some UK cities. I wrote:
The readings have all been between 0.07 mSV/hr to 0.13 mSV/hr. A flight on a commercial jet airplane from Tokyo to New York will expose you to about 190 mSV (about 18.0 mSV/hr) so you can see that the current levels are not be worried about. Unless, of course, you are the worrying sort.
Yet, even with my merely reporting the facts, some people want to take me to task and argue with me for doing so. Since this post is not about people's lack of critical reading skills or lack of analytical thinking abilities (I've covered that here: Critical and Analytical Thinking are Lost Arts Amongst Many of Today's Adult Population) I will stick with the subject and that is an examination of the People of the Lie; People who are so desperate to be "right" that they will do anything or desire anything so that they can be proven correct.
One such person is a reader who is so desperate for this that it seems he hopes radiation is at dangerous levels and many men, women and children in Tokyo do get deathly ill so that he can say later, "I told you so." I don't think it is a problem using his pen name since it is a moniker. His handle is Richardw. He commented:
The question is not what readings you found - but which areas you didn't read that others have found high levels in. Why is it your call to say no big deal? You are a shill - and you are doing a good job of protecting the industry. Hope it goes well for you. Nice to see you work for the industry that TEPCO is known for funding. Well done - Marketing suits you.
Richardw's lack of reasoning skills are so faulty that I don't know where to begin. Richardw accuses me of being a "shill - and you are doing a good job of protecting the industry." And to what basis does he make these claims? Because I reported factually and truthfully what the readings of the Geiger counter I used showed!? Astounding!
Do tell, Richardw, how does that make me a shill? Would you have been happier if I lied and made up wild claims of dangerous radiation in Tokyo? It seems you would.
The knee-jerk reaction and excuse of most of these people like Richardw is that TEPCO lies. Well, it is known and a matter of public record that TEPCO has lied about many things in the past. There is no debate and argument about that. There is, though, argument about what they lied about in this most recent case at Fukushima. For example, the charges that TEPCO lied about meltdowns at the reactor cores as early as March 18th. There was conjecture that the cores may have melted down at that time. Even TEPCO's own records show that there was this possibility, but until the radioactive release and danger was brought under more control, these claims could not be verified. That TEPCO did not announce unverified information does not constitute a lie. Unverified information is just that; it is conjecture. Public companies handling a nuclear crisis have a responsibility to tell the truth. They do not and should not go on the mass media making pronouncements of unverified claims. That would be most irresponsible.
Once again, we must only deal with known facts. I always want to deal with facts. My post was factual. What else is there?
What is the motivation for being one of the People of the Lie?
Either way, like I said, TEPCO has lied. That is a known fact and in the public domain. Lying is a very bad thing and should not be easily forgiven. TEPCO's motivations for lying are for money and lying to protect people's job's and their own, as well as the livelihoods of their employees and their families.
That being said, these motivations for TEPCO's lying are easily recognizable, and, in a way, very understandable.
Motivations for people like Richardw, on the other hand, are more difficult to pin down. But, in my opinion, once you do recognize then for what they are, they are even more ugly, disgusting and grotesque than TEPCO's simple-minded motivations.
Like my friend who ran away to southern Japan, these people are so "sick" that they desperately want people to suffer or die in order to be proven correct. The fact of the matter is that People of the Lie, like Richardw, want to be proven correct for nothing else but to be able to say, "I told you so." It is nothing short of narcissism and the twisted vanity of a psychopath.
Trust that, even though they fail to realize it, the fact is that people like the ones who lied at TEPCO and people like Richardw are actually birds of a feather.
They all are truly People of the Lie.
To read more on the concept of the People of the Lie, I recommend F. Scott Peck's bestselling book, "People of the Lie - the Hope for Healing Human Evil"
