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Notes -
I sense disapproval in your tone, but this is just how we are. And why we developed institutions to make sure that the sort of weirdo that hangs around these parts and cares about what is literally true to an unhealthy degree can be made socially useful.
We used to be more aware of the fact that the masses are rubes who lie all the time to everyone starting with themselves.
The corruption of those mitigating institutions has forced us to engage in a project of uplifting everybody into rationalism (this is what the Enlightenment is really about ultimately). But that was silly and hubristic. There is no way for society to work without useful lies.
You can say a lot of things about The Invention of Lying but the core proposition of the film it demonstrates quite aptly: without lies, society would be brutal and abject to everyone. And unlike the movie characters who get to be deadpan for comedic purposes, we'd be at each other's throats.
Now this is not to discard the merits of truth which are of immense value, but they alone can't order any society that would be human.
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