Cover Up

It never fails to amaze me that people don't believe people lie.  You can call it whatever you want, but when person #1 is looking for information and person #2 does not give the information that is being sought, it is a lie.

We elect a lot of very bad politicians because we voters don't believe they are lying to us when they tell us what we want to hear, and then go on and do something else entirely.

But, honestly, if you have ever watched a commercial or held a job, you must know that you are being lied to with alarming frequency.

When a company has a board meeting, and the next time they meet they review the minutes, it is not entirely for accuracy's sake.

People who lie have all kinds of rationalizations for their lies.  Mostly, they don't think that the person they are lying to can handle the lie.  Bad things would happen if the truth were told.

Let's say, for example, that libraries need to get rid of some books when there are too many on the shelf.  This is a fact of life.  We are fortunate to be living in a country where, at least until now, libraries have been so valued that new books continue to get purchased until there is no longer room on the shelves for them.

Now, if libraries told the truth about this, the fear is that it would open up a huge can of worms.  Taxpayers would be furious.  There is a story, possibly apocryphal, more than likely true, of a judge who ordered a library in some town to put books in storage rather than destroy them.  There are definitely people who go through library dumpsters looking for those suspiciously marked boxes of trash.  The volume is so great, however, that (and I know this for a fact) that sometimes when that has happened those boxes end up being put on the curb for garbage, or maybe in the hopes that someone wanting a ready made library will take them all home.

But taxpayers mostly know that you can't just keep adding space to a library rather than get rid of books.  In a library system where very generous patrons donate tons of lovely books to be sold by the Friends of the Library, there just isn't the means to offer all the used library books for sale as well.

So, instead of the skulking around, taping up boxes of books and running them out to the dumpster in the dark of night, or however your library system handles this problem, wouldn't a little transparency offer up a world of possible solutions?

Now, this wasn't at all what I was planning on talking about here today.

In a related matter, when somebody at work makes a BIG mistake, what do they do?  Really?  Suppose, all of a sudden, many many items are erased from inventory -- something very likely with the ease of the keystroke.

Do they immediately go to whoever is in charge and own up?  And then, they immediately figure out who will be affected, and then they decide how to let everyone involved know in a timely manner.  And then they all brainstorm what is the best way to handle this error.  And they of course appreciate input from anyone who has an idea....

Naw.  They pretend it didn't happen.  Ask a direct question and it will get ignored.  Change of subject.  In some cases, transfer of blame.  Most definitely cover up of the extent of the problem.

So, when you can't understand why the world around you, from Congress to the toothpaste you bought, isn't working out the way you were sure it was supposed to, just remember, people lie.