OP:ED – Pathological lying: a Guyanese crisis

Feb 08, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – Some thought has been given to what I believe to be a broadening Guyanese norm. It is of what are questionable truths, subtle deceptions, and sly falsehoods, either by commission or omission. It is my position that we are creeping towards a society of pathological liars, and mostly in political circles, with a hearty supporting cast doing its part loudly, unashamedly.  I invite fellow Guyanese to recheck for themselves, recall their own encounters, and revisit what is public, at every level, then connect the dots.

Guyanese sit around a table, and there is concern about forked tongues, ulterior motives, and those listening to be ‘news carriers.’  Guyanese note politicians making claims, taking postures, delivering what they insist that the rest of accept as what is clean and clear, when most in their audiences (including some faithful) discern that much is missing, more does not add up.  No political party is innocent, very few politicians untarnished, as in speaking to what is consistently truthful. Elections stand as Exhibit Number One; State institutions transformed into snakes crawling on their bellies; and most politicians, especially notable ones, are the brightest canvases through their evading, stretching, circling around, ducking, distancing, or denying what is truthful what is accurate, what is wholly clean. How the taxpayers’ money is spent is another. In sum, the political fabrications that spice-up messages, fuel lies and more damn lies from bigshots, and others.

The result, from my perspective, is the suspect, the slippery, where truth is concerned; and the widening power of chronic lying to the face, which dehydrates an already anemic society.  Guyana is now a minefield of pathological lying.  Be it about oil management, individual credentials, or postures about trusted governance, and governing for all; about who cheated, who is of oneness, and who is divisive.

In view of the manner to which pathological lying is now rooted and branched in this country, I find myself agreeing with what has long been considered to be a problem, a serious health problem.  It is that pathological lying is a mental disorder, be it by politicians of rank, or from that elevation to the populace at the peasant level (“Pathological lying could finally be getting attention as a mental disorder” -CNN February 3).  I strongly agree that pathological lying is a sickness, and if anyone needs a big laboratory to carry out surveys, experiments, and studies to gather data for interpretation, there is Guyana.  Rich proof is present, because pathological lying is now a natural resource, as observed, as encountered, as impacted.  It is because the most common definition of pathological lying applies here: people lying a lot.

According to the CNN article, psychiatrists have recognised pathological lying as a mental affliction since the 1800s, yet experts say it has never been given serious attention, funding or real study.  The experts should come to Guyana, and it is free in the countless instances of what has now mutated into the culture of pathological lying throughout most of the national political body.  I would assert that we don’t have to be psychiatrists to conclude that we live with men and women, who think that falsehoods and deviousness are the most ordinary things in the world; second nature, nothing that should amount to a concern. Deal in lies too much leads to believing them.

Even the most unlearned and unexposed in our Guyanese environment know when something is being held back, when what is offered is not as it seems, and when they are being taken for a ride.  We call it cunning, splitting hairs, and manufacturing truths that are non-existent.  I contend that half-truths, partial truths, and shades of truths are what have been delivered as nothing but the whole truth, and the full truth. Politicians lie through their teeth, and none are what is called ‘little white ones’. Guyana is in the big time and prime time today and there is no better time for our political people, and those positioning themselves to get something from them, to make a national industry out of chronic lying.

I urge doubters to ask a question, a simple one; or raise an issue of concern that calls for a straight answer, and study what results.  One political stalwart has settled for aggressiveness, another political luminary for concealing, and others for silence or stealthy pussyfooting.  Per Christian Hart, who directs a Human Deception Laboratory at Texas Woman’s University, “when people go into politics, there’s pretty good evidence that the most successful politicians are the ones that are more willing to bend the truth”. Guyanese politicians don’t bend the truth, they break it into a million pieces. Citizens, having recognised a prospering, survival attribute for politicians, then take the path of least resistance: they imitate. Georgetown: we have a problem.  It’s a huge one.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• CNN, crisis, Elections, GHK Lall, Guyanese

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