Absolute Honesty by David Seagrave
I was a very small boy when my father told me how bad it was of me to lie Then he made an issue of the fact that I had confused the two meanings of “to lie “ I had written that someone who lies is a li-ER ( I had of course made similar mistakes such as saying “sheeps “ – in trouble for NOT KNOWING the perversities of English spelling !)
Ingrained honesty is as part of my character as ingrained parsimony Deep down I find that it is an offence against logic to lie For if everybody lied then the whole edifice of civilisation would collapse Now throughout the cosmos and in whatever arithmetic sentient beings may adopt,nine sixes will always make fifty four .That statement is eternally irrefutable When a child is punished for such absurd reasons as spelling LIER instead of LIAR he acquires a TYRANNICAL GUILT COMPLEX which smites him even if he has doubts about any fact This gives rise to further deep seated autonomous behaviours if the child as an adult has completely forgotten facts about his past life like “the exact date when he sold Corgi scooter OPX 321 to the Matheson brothers in 1961!”
This guilt hits me in the face whenever I tread the moral tightropes of everyday life and particularly whenever I am dealing with people in authority I must surely have caused offence when I have told such people every pettifogging detail of what I can remember about such matters as a hospital admission in 1952 when aged 11 ,if asked to give details of hospital admissions at interviews I had to come out with how I got the sack several times and that meant naming my superiors (Who was Mr Upjohn at the Inland Revenue ?)
My instinctive compulsion to tell THE EXACT TRUTH went to absurd lengths such as when I was stopped by a policeman in the small hours and asked where I had been and I replied “MAESGLASAU CAEAFON “ which was the truth – a 650m high mountain near Dolgellau (Or should I have given him the Grid reference of the summit and it s precise height ?)
I have NO WAY OF DISCERNING when it does not matter if I give a wrong answer or I have totally forgotten trivial details of any event I have unwittingly incriminated myself over having to break the law to get home in charge of a faulty vehicle Without going into details I persistently rode scooters without headlights as far as the nearest bus stops or railway stations and then had similar problems with the Aixams notably the puncture on a Christmas Day I have LIED TO shifty people that I am NOT David Seagrave or said that I come from one of the places in my parallel universe ,to get rid of them In crises I have lied that I have a severe bowel problem and THAT GETS THINGS DONE ! I have long deliberated on a few acts of deception that I have committed ,to get me safely home or extricate me from embarrassing situations to do with excretory processes .
I am daily confronted with a society built on very shifting sands –outright lies and half truths –to the extent that I simply cannot make objective judgments about many matters that impinge upon my lifestyle As was so during dictatorships I “read between the lines” about claims made by business corporations and governments The adage “Truth is the first casualty in war “ is now TRUE ABOUT CONSUMER SOCIETY It is precisely for that reason that I wallow long in the bath and try to reason out how I should behave when immersed in this quagmire of deception that reaches into every aspect of people s lives
I draw great comfort whenever I am able to go to places where there is nothing manmade in sight and such quiet where the loudest noise is the wind Here I feel that I am a Mind who makes the place complete for a fleeting flash of Higher Consciousness I contemplate starlit skies and sense that I have cultivated my Higher Consciousness –the presence of God in myself – I think of the Gadarene rush to self gratification and in using the word GADARENE I see Sunday School book illustrations of the pigs careering over the cliff at Gadara .When Men become extinct the stars will still shine but there will be no Appreciative Minds to thank God for the splendours of the heavens where Eternal Truths are there for educated minds to discover .
As I walk under the stars I try to think out an alternative value system and that leads back to my brainchild ,Contributionism ( and also to my Extrterrestrials the Vinyoy and the Hexadacts for whom ,wrongdoing is laughably absurd )Now without going into details my current collision with DVLA spotlights my moral tightrope and how I was judged unfit to drive after an honest mistake on a dirty wet night that only held up traffic for a minute or two when daily I am confronted by blatant dishonesty in shops ,by government officials and even by churchpeople who twist facts to suit their denominational biases .
YOUNG PEOPLE have been brought up in a world where they CANNOT DISTINGUISH between truth and falsehood E.g they are told that they can WIN MONEY by betting –they are NOT TAUGHT Probability Theory .Now back to Plato s idea about the people in the cave and those who have escaped the cave to discover the reality of the world beyond Present society brings up children as though they had to wear dark glasses and see reality in perpetual gloom.Or rather have to wear glasses that provide severely distorted colours –like a world which is simply in shades of purple with no greens or yellows Children are taught that what matters in life is self-gratification and bugger everybody else !
I therefore consider that it is my bounden duty to do what I can to provide a framework for young Aspies to know when the LESSER OF EVILS is a tactical lie otherwise they might fall prey to criminals And consider the strict consequences of absolute honesty and lawbreaking when ones vehicle is technically unroadworthy and there is NO public transport back home on a dirty wet night It would be absurd to abandon such a vehicle and spend a night in a telephone box and get pneumonia as a result !
I am most anxious for positive feedback on the subject of absolute honesty
David Seagrave ,Dunfermline Library 9-8-2012