8 The language of lying
Lying is as integral to the human experience as humour is. Language may be the mechanism we have for expressing our inner thoughts to an external audience, but it’s not restricted to representing these thoughts exactly as we think them. We have the ability, through language, to create entirely imaginary worlds; to envisage and communicate scenarios which have never existed. It’s this faculty of thought-through-language which creates so much of the culture we live in and allows for myth-making and fictional storytelling. But it also provides us with the potential to lie.
Lying, as with humour, occurs in all areas of our lives. The video in this section, however, focuses predominantly on lying in politics. Politics is founded on persuasion – that’s, say, the act of convincing someone to do something they weren’t necessarily planning to do. Politicians need to persuade people to support them; they need to persuade people that their ideas for running the country are better than their rivals’ ideas; and that they have the skills to carry out these ideas. On the basis of this persuasion, the electorate votes for the politicians and invests them with political power. The whole system, in other words, relies on being able to trust what politicians say, which is why the issue of lying is so contentious in the context of politics.
So what exactly counts as a lie in politics? And is the context of politics any different from other contexts in which lying takes place? The films below look at why it is that humans lie, and what precisely the nature of the relationship is between politics and lying. They ask whether there’s a difference between a lie, an untruth and a falsehood, and consider what role lying plays in human communication.
Activity 9
As you watch the films, make some notes in the text box below and save your answer. There is no comment for this activity.
OpenLearn - A short introduction to the English language
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