Over our usual utterly English, cholesterol-laden but oh-so-delicious Sunday breakfast, The Center of My Universe and I got to discussing what would happen if we Couldn’t Lie.
Seen the movie ‘Liar, Liar’?
Well, like that.
Any attempt at an untruth would be stifled with a gagging, chocking action as the words lodged in your throat. It wouldn’t matter if it was a little white fib (“I’m fine, thanks”) or a great big whopper (“I was hiking the Appalachian trail …”), anything less than true would be literally unmentionable.
Now just imagine what could happen …
You could go into every prison and ask each inmate – “Are you guilty of the crime for which you’re incarcerated?”. If he/she says yes – that’s it then. No parole, no years on Death Row. No appeal court or lawyers needed. (Of course, if they say no, you could always hedge your bets and ask if they’ve committed a crime for which they Should have been imprisoned – just to be safe!)
And as a side note – I’ve got dibs on asking OJ first!
You could ask your spouse/significant other – “Do you love me?”. If the answer is yes, you can quit nagging/worrying already!
Could you imagine the complete and utter havoc/change/upheaval this one little distinction would create in our political arena??
Ooh so delicious to think about?
“President Bush, did you Know that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but went ahead with the war anyway?”
“Members of the FDA, do you take money from lobbyists at the expense of the national health? What cures are you withholding because of the possible losses that would be suffered by big drug companies?”
“Does anyone know what happened to Jimmy Hoffa?”
“Raise your hand if you’ve taken steroids….”
Of course, all this truthfulness would also have some not so pleasant repercussions …
“Mommy, is Santa coming?” “No, darling, because he doesn’t really exist.”
“Do I look fat in this?” “Ummm….”
OK, so maybe absolute honesty all day, every day, would be a little hard to swallow, but imagine if we could have Just One Day where nobody could lie.
We could call it WORLD TRUTH DAY and we could prepare the questions we want answered.
We could even call a United Nations summit on that day and get some international subterfuge cleared up for good. “Hands up if you have nuclear weapons ….”
Just think how everyone, from Presidents, to illegal immigrants, to tax preparers, to your delinquent teenager, would have to clean up their act all year round, because they’d Know that they would have to answer some awkward questions on Truth Day!
So while polishing off the remains of my toast and marmalade, I got to pondering the kind of questions I’d like to ask and who I’d like to have answer them.
Of course it would be really cool if you could call back the dead guys and get some of the major planetary mysteries cleared up. Not just the historically fascinating ones – like who built the pyramids and whether Churchill and Roosevelt did in fact have advance warning of the attack on Pearl Harbour – although that would be awesome and would probably put a whole bevy of historians behind the drive-thru line at McDonalds.
But I’m thinking more of the kind of questions that people Believe they KNOW the answers to, and will maim, destroy and kill to defend their right to be right.
Questions like “Was Jesus real?”; “Did Mohamed really condone killing of non-believers?”; “Whose version of God is correct?”.
Perhaps we would find out at the end of the day, that none of the answers would really matter if everyone just told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
And as I savoured my last mouthful of toast and marmalade, and began clearing the dishes, I was left with two final questions:-
“What questions would YOU ask?”
and
“Why can’t we live like that any?”