The three kinds of lies: Big lies, little white lies, and statistics
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Mark Twain attributed these words to a British prime minister, but scholars have found others to whom credit should be given. Perhaps that’s why there are so few original thoughts, which once prompted Alfred North Whitehead to remark that “all philosophy is a footnote to Plato.”
I’ve used these words about lies myself and given credit falsely to Mark Twain. I am going to add to the confusion by repeating my version of what I thought then were Twain’s quotation, which can now I believe to be mine unless some scholars somewhere find my words were spoken or written long ago by someone else.
Here was my interpretation in a column I wrote some years ago of what I thought Mark Twain had written: “There are three kinds of lies: Big lies, little white lies, and statistics.” I know the two words, “big lies” are now current in political circles about the past presidential election, but they were mine years ago, unless, of course, some scholar finds they are not mine at all but used centuries ago by some obscure thinker.
There are many big lies these days that multiply like mosquitoes on a muggy summer night. Someone starts a big lie and it multiplies so fast on so many media and print outlets it’s nearly impossible to discover its origins or decide if it has any truth in it.
In our times big lies, if big enough and repeated often, grow without much ability to check them, in spite of fake news or fact-checkers. It seems the bigger the lie the harder it is to stop its spread so that sometimes a whole culture is immersed and truth is the loser.
Let’s face it, while most of us don’t have the platforms to spread big lies, we do find the need to use little, white lies many times. When we are confronted with our own little, white lies it’s easier to deny we ever told a lie or that our small lies were intended to save someone’s feelings.
Little, white lies are the stuff of which everyday life is made. We hide behind them to save others and ourselves the burden of whatever truth we don’t want to face about ourselves.
As to the third ingredient of lies — statistics — we know that in the public media one person’s statistics are another person’s lies. Right now, as you read these words, I know that at least 75 percent of you agree with everything I am writing. (Well, it’s just a little, white lie I am using to shade the truth).
When it comes to lies and truths, there are two conclusions I have come to see as important.
First, everyone lies, some more often than others. The difference is that some people don’t realize they lie, while others use lies to hide the truth. Those who use lies intentionally are worse because they know they are lying to hide the truth or benefit themselves. This may explain why in many world spiritual traditions, Satan is seen as the great liar or deceiver.
Second, we live in dangerous times when facts don’t seem to matter and falsehoods take on the mantle of truth. In such cases, truth dies the slow death of confusion, consternation and eventually its demise.
The best advice I can offer is to accept no statement as true unless you have examined it carefully, listened to facts that seem to be contrary, and then concluded tentatively what may be true. Note, the word “tentatively.” Few truths survive the tests of time and critical inquiry, but when they do, pay attention. They are very important breakthroughs in times of twisted logic and lies.
Email: lmitchell@ 21st-centurymedia.com Mail: 24 N. Hanover St., Pottstown, PA 19464
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