The eighth circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno is for the sin of fraud. Generally, this includes counterfeiting, hypocrisy, lying, stealing, and more.
What is the punishment in circle 8?
Circle 8 of Hell in Dante’s Inferno has ten different areas for fraudsters. Dante describes these as separate ditches or trenches within the circle. In the first ditch, demons whip pimps and seducers. In the second, flatterers are buried in sewage and feces. In the third, “simonists” – those who abuse church power – are buried upside down and their feet are burned. In the fourth, sorcerers or fortune tellers are forced to walk around with their heads on backwards. In the fifth, the politically corrupt are buried in boiling tar. In the sixth, religious hypocrites are forced to wear torturously heavy church robes. In the seventh, snakes bind thieves’ hands behind their backs and torture them in various other ways. In the eighth, those who lied for personal gain are turned into living flames. In the ninth, people who sowed division walk in a circle. When they pass a certain demon, it chops their head or limbs off – their wounds slowly heal as they walk around again, and the demon chops them again when they come back around. In the tenth and final ditch, counterfeiters are punished with various afflictions like scabies, itching, or thirst. —- From Study.Com by Angie Armendariz, Arielle Windham, and Jenna Clayton.
Christians believe that everyone is a sinner. That is why every week at a Christian church you will hear an aisle full of practitioners asking forgiveness for their sins. The times I accompany my spouse to church, I am reluctant to confess any sins or to ask for any forgiveness. I can’t help but wonder what I should ask forgiveness for. Many the day I regret something I have said or done but seldom do I think this makes me a sinner. When they say that Christ died for my sins, I wonder how he could have known the stupid and sometimes malicious things I actually have done? Perhaps this is an example of a Big Lie.
Writers all lie. Some more than others. There are lies of omission. There are lies of commission. There is hyperbole. There is obfuscation. Writers of course are not the only ones who lie. The government lies. The army lies. The CIA lies. Even your parents probably lied to you more than you think. Sometimes we lie to get our point across. Sometimes we lie to protect another. Sometimes we lie to protect ourselves. Sometimes we lie because of erroneous beliefs, common but false tropes, misinformation, and disinformation.
The media today is one big melting pot of lies. CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, Breitbart and all the other major networks are cesspools of daily lies. Left wing, right wing, Democrats, Independents, Republicans, John Birchers all lie. Studies show that average people also lie fairly regularly. “Do as I say and not as I do” is one form of lying. The biggest lies we engage in are lies to ourselves. Self-talk is full of lies. “I would never do that.” “I get better every day.” “I get enough exercise.” “I am a follower of Jesus Christ.” Some studies such as noted below show that the assumption that most people are liars is not exactly true. Many people are opportunistic liars.
“People also have good and bad lie days, when they tell more or fewer lies than is typical for them, Levine says. People do not lie for the most part, he says, a few pathological liars aside. Also, for the most part, people do not lie unless they have a reason to. Our daily communication demands are a big driver for most of us on how honest or dishonest we are,” Levine said. — “New research shows most people are honest” — by Shannon Thomason
On the subject of writers as liars, I include advertisers, marketers, political speech writers, media script writers and even blog writers. We are all guilty of Big Lies. The following quote is attributed to the Nazis Joseph Goebbels, but it was also written in Hitler’s Mein Kampf:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Upon reading the above quote, it might give you some pause when it comes to believing anything that comes out of the mouth of a press secretary or any other official State representative. To repeat “The Truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” My father once said, “Believe nothing of what you hear and half of what you see.” This might have been the best advice that I have ever received. This is why all teachers today say that they believe Critical Thinking skills are the most important tools we can teach students. Unfortunately, this is also a Big Lie. It is something that might be believed but it is not practiced.
I call a Big Lie something that is truly and wonderfully believed either by the writer or speaker. Unfortunately, they may not adhere to it in practice or in their daily lives. They talk and write a good game, but they do not deliver. As Martin Luther King said about the “Declaration of Independence”,
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as White men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.”
Our Founding Fathers wrote a Big Lie and African Americans have been paying for it ever since. Women and other minorities were not even mentioned in the Big Lie, but it applied to them as well. Lies can be committed because people believe things that do not mesh with reality. Lies are a coverup for many government actions that our politicians do not see as palatable for the public. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, the overthrow of Salvador Allende, the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are only a few of the lies that have been fed to the American people. Of course, our politicians would have us believe it is for our own good. The really sad part is that the media is always complicit in these lies by reporting them with little or no verification of their truthfulness. Some of these lies fall into what I call the “Realm of Taboos.” Taboos are a good place to look for Big Lies.
A Taboo is defined by the Online Oxford dictionary as, “A social or religious custom prohibiting or forbidding discussion of a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.” Taboos arise when reality clashes with Big Lies. For instance, it is a Big Lie to think that Americans always fight a virtuous war. Our government wants us to believe that any war we fight is to protect the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It would not do any good to let the public know that most of our wars have been wars of aggrandizement. Wars fought to protect our economic interests. Thus, we develop Taboos that prohibit subjects from being discussed. This saves government and politicians from being exposed as Big Liars.
One particularly egregious lie is that someone is never too old to hold public office. We have a plethora of “old” politicians and judges who would be better retired. The average age of senators in the 118th Congress is 64 years old. There are 54 senators older than 65. I am 77 years old in two weeks and my days have dwindled down to about four to five ENERGY hours per day. The rest of my day is spent napping, reading, watching TV, or just enjoying a good Bourbon. Many of the politicians holding office probably cannot say that they could do any better than I could. But no one has yet disputed their right to run for office.
“American society on the whole fears aging. It is a culture that works overtime to stave off death, even while having one of the lowest life expectancies in the world compared to the amount spent on health care every year. It is considered taboo to bring up age in a variety of contexts, including whether or not someone is still hardy enough for the rigors of public service after more than eight decades on the planet.” — Aug. 31, 2023, by Hayes Brown, MSNBC Opinion Writer/Editor
So, we tell a Big Lie that age does not matter. And we have no one willing to challenge that lie. However, it is not only physical aging that puts people at a disadvantage, but mental aging as well. Many older people are stuck in a past generation of ideas and values that are no longer relevant today. Values and cultures change over time and people born in the 40’s and 50’s are less likely to understand and adapt to the changes that daily life brings. If you can only see the “Good Old Days”, you may be suffering from old age. The average age of Nobel Prize winners when they conducted their prize-winning research is 44.1 years. As for writing, “According to experts, we start becoming more creative and prolific in whatever field of art or study we work, around the age of 25. Most people reach their peak after the age of 35 or in their 40s. This is when they produce their most valuable work. After the age of 45, most artists’ prolificity starts slowly declining.” — The Adroit Journal
Conclusions:
- Big Lies are part of reality.
- People often do not want to know the truth.
- Politicians believe that people cannot handle the truth.
- Big Lies are told to conceal realities that will adversely impact governments.
- We all lie sometimes. Some of us more than others.
- Writers have a responsibility to tell the truth as much as possible.
- We cannot always see the culture of lies that we are caught in.
- Follow my father’s advice: “Believe nothing of what you hear and half of what you see.”
- When you do not believe something, gain insights from 360 Degree Thinking.
360 Degree Thinking can be defined as, “being cognizant of ideas and insights coming from a variety of sources, both internally and externally, and understanding the critical interconnectedness of these ideas.” It is about your ability to view ideas and information coming from all sides and on all levels in all timeframes (for example, short, medium and long-term priorities). —- Ideas for Action
As with any of the constitutional amendments there is a certain, indeed I would say “high” degree of ambiguity as to the limits of what the Founding Fathers meant by their words. We know for instance that they did not mean that you could slander or libel anyone with your words. We know that they did not mean that you could yell “fire” in a crowded theater. We also know that there are many instances of what the Founding Fathers did not have a clue would become an interpretation for “Free Speech.” For instance, the Citizens United decision by the US Supreme Court says that the right to make political contributions is a form of free speech. This will probably go down in history as one of the most egregious interpretations of what the Founding Fathers meant. The only interpretations that seem more egregious concern several earlier court decisions regarding slavery and the buying and selling of human beings.
Recently, I read of the case of an eleven-year-old convicted of killing his stepmother. His appeal took three and a half years to come to court and then found him not guilty. On the other hand, Kari Lake, the big lie advocate and loser in the Arizona Governor’s race this past year had appeal after appeal and each one seemed to take less than two or three weeks. It takes three and a half years to get justice for an eleven-year-old wrongly convicted of murder, but Lake got trial after trial for her baseless and politically motivated claims that they “stole” the election from her. This same scenario has played out repeatedly in the past few years. Poor people with no money wait years to get a “fair hearing” while rich bottom feeders like Lake walk in and out of court on an almost daily basis.
How do you know if you know anything? You have two paths to answer this question. The first path involves your belief that you do know something. You can choose this path if you are fairly certain that you know something. It may surprise you, but this is not a path of science. This is a Faith-Based path. No matter what anyone tells you, science relies on faith almost as much as religion relies on faith.
The Faith Based Path could lead one to accept that hundreds of systems across America could not all have been wrong and that the tallies were accurate because someone you trust told you they were. If you do not trust the poll counters, you will reject the decisions made by election boards and cling to the idea that Trump was cheated by liars and scoundrels. Either way it is a matter of faith.
I have often been accused of being a pessimist but there is nothing about this quote that is pessimistic. It is simply a fact that we must use our imaginations to see a different world and to believe that a different world can exist. As long as we are stuck in the same thinking that generated our problems, we are not free to consider alternative realities. We need more thinking about possibilities and the future. We are bogged down with what Dr. Deming called the “problems of today.” Deming said, “We must balance the problems of today with the problems of tomorrow.”
I want to make an argument as to why most of what you hear or read is biased, prejudiced and based on narrow minded thinking. Most of what you read will not lead you to the truth but will take you down a path away from the truth. My argument will also apply to what you are about to read. I am biased, narrow minded and prejudiced. So why should you read or listen to what I am about to write? Well, let’s start at the beginning.
I have been seeking the truth or what might pass as “truth” for most of my 75 years on this earth. I was considered the “smartest” guy in the room in many of my high school and college classes. The authorities or those that are supposed to be good judges of truth and knowledge gave me two undergraduate degrees, one master’s degree and a Ph.D. Degree. Once upon a time, I belonged to many different professional associations and was also a member of MENSA, the so-called high IQ society. None of my qualifications or associations prepared me any better than anyone else upon this earth to find the TRUTH. Like most of you, I am still looking and hoping that the “Truth will set me free.” If only, I can find it.
“Rathom campaigned for the U.S. to enter World War I in support of the British. Under his management, the Providence Journal produced a series of exposés of German espionage and propaganda in the U.S. In 2004, that same newspaper reported that much of Rathom’s coverage was a fraud: ‘In truth, the Providence Journal had acquired numerous inside scoops on German activities, mostly from British intelligence sources who used Rathom to plant anti-German stories in the American media.’” – 
“The media are among those that profit by marketing fear – nothing gives a boost to circulation and ratings like a good panic – but the media also promote unreasonable fears for subtler and more compelling reasons. The most profound is the simple love of stories and storytelling. For the media, the most essential ingredient of a good story is the same as that of a good movie, play or tale told by a campfire. It has to be about people and emotions, not numbers and reason. Thus, the particularly tragic death of a single child will be reported around the world while a massive and continuing decline in child mortality rates is hardly noticed.” — Pg. 294
Integrity is everything to lose and nothing to gain, except your self-respect. Integrity is standing up for what you believe is right even when everyone is against you. Integrity is the ability to put compassion and kindness ahead of self-interest. Integrity cannot co-exist with greed. It cannot co-exist with lust. It cannot co-exist with a thirst for power. It cannot co-exist with a drive for money, fame, or fortune. All of these elements are like Kryptonite to Integrity. Kryptonite was the one thing that could rob Superman of his powers. Lust, greed, money, fame, and power all have the ability to rob one of his/her integrity.
Politics is a sham in America today. We have men and women who are elected for life and spend more time campaigning then they do in serving their constituents. Public servants who start collecting money to run their next campaigns within days of winning their present office. We have a system of government where money is the most important factor in who gets elected and who gets reelected. Our politicians are more worried about losing votes than they are in the constitution or in protecting our democracy. What Integrity is there in supporting a riot to overthrow a fair election that every court and every state in America found was fairly conducted? The media seized on the outrageousness of the Big Lie to sell news. The losing party seized on the credibility of millions of gullible supporters to buy the Big Lie and try to maintain their power.
The media in America has become another hallowed institution gutted by greed and a desire for more and more money. Reporters, writers, and journalists in America today are more interested in selling advertising than they are in balanced objective reporting. You can divide the news up by whether they lean Right or Left, Liberal or Conservative, Democrat or Republican. Each side has a mirror image on the other side of the political spectrum. CNN is opposed by Fox News. The New York Times is opposed by The New York Post and the Washington Post is opposed by the Washington Times. One side supports the Right and the other side supports the left. This is not balanced reporting, and no truth comes out of the dynamic between the two sides. What both sides have in common are reporters who will report the most useless, tasteless, uninformative stories if they perceive that these stories will sell advertising or if they can figure out a clickbait title that will attract readers and thereby expose them to paid commercials.
f you want more of a description of each scale you can follow the hyperlink above. The USA ties for 10th place with Great Britain on this index. I can see some correlation with Integrity, but I can see many differences. I think honesty is one component of Integrity, but Integrity is more complex than being simply honest. An honest person can still lack integrity if they are unwilling to stand up for what they believe. Cowardice and Integrity are incompatible.
Aging Capriciously 