DECEPTION – deliberate misguidance

We are constantly exposed to deception and deceit. Perhaps we are so used to being bluffed, that we more or less ignore it. That’s actually a good thing, as it would otherwise drive us crazy. Deception is the act of spreading beliefs about issues that are not true; the softer term is: bending the truth. These half-truths and omissions are also known as dissimulation, propaganda, concealment, or as I call it: deliberate misguidance. No matter how we slice it, deception is rarely a nice thing, because it foremost insults our intelligence, and we are really not that stupid.

When somebody deceives us we more so register it as we are being lied to. Lying is making up information that for the most part is opposite or different from the truth – very much like deception, duh. Dishonesty comes to mind, along with fraud, misrepresentation, lack of trust, disrespect and other lovely transgressions; what I’m concerned ‘spinelessness’ is another good name for it.

We really don’t like being deceived or lied to; it is such an ill-mannered notion. Betrayal ruins trust, and we must more so try to trust each other in all aspects of our lives together. But deceit is an unfortunate part of communicating by many (but not you and I, of course…)

And it’s not just what we say in that respect, but also with what we do not say. Concealment, as in omitting information that is important or vital concerning reaching the truth or any shade of reality, is as big as a lie. Concealing, as with lying and deceiving, is perhaps even more disrespectful (Yuk!)

Exaggerations and understatements are also tools used to avoid the truth, and I’m more than willing to place these actions on the list of betrayal, disrespect and dishonesty, as well. And we are unfortunately exposed to these ‘not-the-whole-truth’ issues daily – seriously.

The beef I have with dishonesty, deceit, whatever label you want to apply, are that it’s all done purposely, deliberately and with the precise knowledge and plan to conduct betrayal. It can be the small daily-deceits we tend to ignore, or the huge scams of milking people out of their money and property (Madoff’s billions of dollars Ponzi scheme, is a glaring example). But whatever the size of the deceit, they all come from the same mold.

I was driving behind a Safeway van (‘lorry’ for some readers) the other day. It said in huge letters FREE DELIVERY. So I read this and went WOW (I do the WOW thing a lot); I can buy groceries from Safeway on-line and get the order delivered for free. I believed that up to the point where I was close enough to the back of the van/lorry, from where I could barely read the very small writing underneath: on the first order. Sure Safeway can comfortably utter that they are NOT trying to deceive and/or mislead, but reality is that they obviously wrote it that way to conceal how the so-called free deliveries would work after the first order. I call that: intentional deceit.

We see the same on all kinds of food labels. The ice cream carton tells me something about 140 calories. Okay, I’m not totally dim as I realize (duh) that this 5 gallon bucket of caramel, cookie-dough and chocolate chip ice cream would be a tad more than 140 calories, otherwise I wouldn’t eat anything else – ever, and would be pleasantly slim in the process– right? But it says 140 calories per serving. I can swing with that, until I realize that a serving is not much more than ¼ cup (or less). Now, who the heck would eat a portion that size? Why even bother?

So if I’m not totally off track, eating ice cream as any normal person, I would no doubt inhale more than 50 million calories in one sitting (being my favorite ice cream), with no clue about how many bloody servings it takes. My eloquent point is that it is deceit and concealment of reality and purposely presented as such. ‘Oh, only 140 calories’, is a normal response – let’s dive in. But servings are set (no laws here?) so small (on purpose & to deceive) to show a low calorie count, and done so to deliberately give us a false picture and hope, of what reality really is.

When we look around in everyday life, acknowledging these pretend information panels, we quickly understand that deceit is running rampant, as in all over the place. Sure suppliers, manufactures, etc. can cover behind rules of this and that, but that is not the point, because they still purposely, deliberately and somewhat successfully misrepresent reality – and to me, reality eating ice cream does not include the term ¼ cup serving at all.

Sodas are for the most part 12 fluid ounces. Most sodas show about 21 grams of sugar, more or less – that in itself is a lot of sugar. But then we realize that it’s per serving. Did you know that a can of soda normally holds two servings, therefor 42 grams of sugar instead of ‘just 21’? But, ‘yes’, 21 sounds a lot better. The question is: who the heck drinks half a can of soda, puts the other half in the fridge to be enjoyed another day? I don’t know anybody who would do that. A can of soda is pretty much inhaled in one sitting (including all 42 grams of sugar), finished with a large burp and done with; that’s reality (in most cases without the silly ‘burp’ thing). It’s ‘lawful’ deception, that’s what it is.

And don’t get me started with the smaller size of people standing next to advertised cars, simply to make the cars look bigger than reality. Not all ads, but many. Watch for it the next time you are looking – really; the sad thing is that it's bloody obvious.

Of course, the area where deception and betrayal is inter-personal, we are talking about levels that are disturbing, sad and emotional, hurting and utterly disrespectful. That is an area that is hard to accept, as it’s degrading and ignorantly thoughtless. Sure we have all gone through some of this crap, but it’s still hard to accept when exposed to – not something we will ever get used to. We can forgive some of it to some extent, but it’s the forgetting part that is so utterly hard, if not impossible to manage.

And that’s a much bigger area to get involved with, trying to understand and/or explain. Inhaling 42 grams of sugar is much easier (and our own choice), but being deceived by anybody on a personal and emotional level is for the most part heart-breaking, confusing and very sad (sigh).

Many people, producers of any consumption products and what have you, truly believe that they are good at deceiving us, good at deception. But I fully believe that this (shallow) confidence is very misplaced. I know that we are all smarter than that, too wise to be pulled in, and that we more so laugh at their feeble and innate belief, that they think that they are so much smarter – because they are not; but we are – don’t you think?

Now where did I put that 5 gallon bucket of ice cream? 140 calories? Piece of cake (yeah, that too…)