Forked Tongues and Authenticity

I grew up in a home where we were told one thing and yet witnessed something totally different by that individual.  It was commonplace for people to speak with forked tongue.

Often these same people that railed against doublespeak were the ones that did it the most.  There was no authenticity, even though they believed that they were authentic.  They felt that what they told others was what mattered, not what they practiced in their own life.

I see this playing out in almost every minute of our day.  Whether it is in politics, on the TV, or online, I hardly see "authenticity" showing up.  Yes, everyone thinks that it is the other person that does this, not them.  How foolish we are!

Like Judge Judy, I'm one of those people that can spot a liar a million miles away (or should I say someone that is not authentic.)  It takes me a split second.  Okay, maybe liar is a little too strong of a word here, but if your words don't match up with what I know about you or if they don't match up with your body language, I'm rolling my eyes.

The online inauthentic people...

Even when it comes to online, I can generally spot the "inauthentic" people quickly and I become wary of anything they say.  They often rail against certain things in life and those same things consume everything they share on social media.  Yet, they often do the very things they despise.

I quit watching the news years ago because it is nowhere near authentic.  I don't understand why anyone watches it these days and I mean "ANY" news.  Everyone goes to their corner of what they believe is true and the news media backs it up.  It isn't necessarily one side or the other on most issues.  It happens on both sides.  There is no authenticity in it whatsoever because it is so often for entertainment purposes.

Inauthentic Marketing...

Let's not forget the ones that equate marketing with spamming, trying to get you to buy their stuff even if it doesn't pass the sniff test.  Marketing these days has become a barrage of waste material constantly thrown at us.  It is not about what the person needs.  It is more about just shoving it down everyone's throat.  There is no authenticity in marketing these days.  It is cloaked in the forked tongue.

There are so many ways we speak with forked tongues but if you try to point that out, no one wants to truly listen.  If they listen, they don't always want to change.  We'd rather point the fingers at others than go in and do what we need to do to help make ourselves human.

I think that if you are authentic, it will show through.  You don't have to grandstand and prove to others you are authentic.  You just need to live your life through authenticity.  When you no longer speak with forked tongue, people will know they can trust what you say.  Whether that is online or in politics or the media and marketing, people will know it when they hear it.

I realize we live in a fake reality these days, but if we don't start turning the ship around and learning how to be human by being authentic, we're going to hit the iceberg and sink.  It isn't up to anyone else to do what needs to be done.  It is up to each one of us individually to take stock of our own life and make the changes necessary for the survival of this planet and our species.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Liar Liar Pants On Fire

Growing up, I had to deal with the absence of truth and facts in my house.  My brother thought that lying was the way to go. It didn't matter how trivial of a situation it was, he would just lie for the sake of lying.  It seemed that way at least.  It felt like the phrase - liar, liar, pants on fire!

As a kid, we lived with a demanding tyrant and if he thought there was trouble, he immediately stepped in and demanded to know what was going on.  Sometimes it was nothing, but to this control freak, everything was something to him.

Of course, my older brother would lie instead of just telling the truth.  These weren't big issues either.  The simple truth would have sufficed and everyone most likely would have went on about their day.  Not my older brother though.  He thought the lie was the norm.  It was truly a liar, liar, pants on fire type of situation.

He lied about everything and anything.  You pick a moment of the day or any subject and instead of being truthful and honest, he would just lie.  I watched him get beat and have soap bars shoved in his mouth, but it didn't stop him.

I got sick and tired of...

My dad would finally resort to threatening to destroy our toys.  Of course, that's where I drew the line because we didn't have many toys and they were my escape away from the hell we lived in.  So, finally I got sick and tired of my brother lying when there was no need.

I started to speak up and tell the truth of what was happening, not giving my brother a chance to say a word.  While the tyrant control freak would often just calm down and go on, it was then that my brother would be angry at me.  I wasn't good at lying anyway but boy, if I crossed my older brother, there was hell to pay.

Lying was normal to him...

He would either pummel me or call me names or make all kinds of statements to my face.  He didn't like getting called out on his lies.  He didn't care if he lied.  Lying was just something normal to him and anyone that stood in his way and exposed the truth was the enemy.  They were the ones in his eyes that were wrong.

I see so much of this happening today that I feel like I'm reliving those past experiences from my childhood.  I have tried so hard to get away from the liar, liar, pants on fire experience.  They were horrible when I was a kid and what I see today is just as horrible.  It is triggering to no end.

In my life, I've always tried to be honest in everything I did.  I've had large corporations that claimed they never asked their employees to lie, but if you didn't, you risked having your job terminated.  I've been honest to the point of being the one that they blamed for something that another person did - namely, the nephew of the owner.  Some of these were big companies too that would of course deny what I'm saying.

I've paid a price for truth...

I try to be honest in everything.  If I tell you something, you can take it to the bank and expect it to be just as true in the future as it is now.  The words I write here, are my truth.  Yes, I've paid a price for daring to speak out, but it is my truth.

Far too often, I see too many that are not truthful with themselves and so they are not truthful with the world.  There are too many that don't mind if they distort the facts or stretch them to make their argument.  This seems like the norm these days.  The most boisterous ones are the ones I keep a watchful eye out on.

To me, the currency of truly being a conscious human is how truthful you can be.  If your word means little and if your actions don't match your words, then to me, you're overdrawing your account.

If instead you strive to be truthful and honest and real, people recognize that.  It is the currency of saying something and people do not need to second guess what you're saying.  It is being authentic and real.  It is what our civilization should be based upon, not on the lies that we hear all day long through social media or in person.

So, who are you?  Are you truthful at all costs, or just when it is convenient for you?  Can people bank upon what you say, or do they wonder about what you mean and what you say?  Do you tell those little white lies or are you a full on liar liar pants on fire type of person?

#Truth

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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