The Truth or Illusion

This is why I love psychology. This was a simple sentence out of a somewhat interesting chapter on social psychology written by the author of the book. It was not said by a great philosopher or past American president. Just a simple line in a textbook. But it hit me like a hammer to the head:

"does happiness come from knowing the truth, or from preserving illusions?"

Do not we all want to say: well, that's simple. Knowing the truth. In society, great emphasis lies on knowing and speaking The Truth.

We tell our children not to lie.

We condemn people to a lifetime in prison (or death) if we perceive injustice or mis truth, or if a person is convicted of withholding truth in a court of law.

We can be fired from our jobs for lying and stealing (a form of lying).

We are told to seek redemption when we lie.

We can even be classified as having a mental disorder if we are a habitual liar.

Let me challenge The Truth. Is the picture you see below a lie or an illusion (I'll give you a hint: one of each)?

Is this artist a master manipulator and liar or an illusionist?

Does the product on the left realllly get a man the effect on the right?

Our society is duplicitous when it comes to The Truth and illusion. While we preach to be natural and love our bodies, and let-it-all-hang-out-because-anyone-who-loves-us-will-love-us-the-way-we-are, we at the same time are over crowding our gyms, young women are under feeding themselves, and we see ads such as the first picture as our non existent ideal of beauty.

We have made the magician above a multi millionaire based on his talent of telling us lies. We walk into the theatre where he is performing, knowing full well we are about to be lied to. And we pay for it. Illusion is a form of escape and surrealism. We are infatuated by it and will crowd show after show to get a taste of a well executed series of "lies". But wait; liars are bad, right? Well...not if everyone knows they're lying and pays for it.

Huh?

Men are told that if they wear a (most obnoxious) scent, young beautiful women will flock to them in a rather automatic and senseless response. I personally figure the reason the woman above is motioning for the man who is wearing that crap to 'call her' is because she can't stand to smell it on him in person. Doubt that's what the advertisers were going for.  :)

Most anyone in our society will agree that lying for the purpose of malfeasance is "bad". And yes, I agree. But my point here is that we do it all of the time. To ourselves, about ourselves, to each other. We make illusions of our ideals in everything. Everything. And what personifies The Truth to you may not be The Truth for me. Your Truth may be my illusion.

Is it better, than, to be content in illusion? Ignorance is bliss? Yes- that model above on the right is actually the way that woman looks, yes the magician is sawing helpless women in half, and yes of course wearing that spray will get you girls. The problem is- our children believe this without the proper guidance. Illusion over Truth and reality.

It is The Truth that I can't answer the bolded quote above. I'd like to say what I have been raised to say: always tell the truth. Of course. But how is that possible in a world of illusion?

Take Plato's allegory of the cave. The people in the cave who saw their own shadows dancing on the walls did not know that what they saw were their own shadows because they had no point of reference. To them, The Truth was that those shadows were whatever they construed them to be. In their minds, that was The Truth. To others, it is evident that shadows are an illusion.

The Truth or preserving illusions. What causes you greater happiness?