As If.

The most enduring lies are those that are a notch shy of the truth.

The ‘As If’ lies.

They look as if they are the truth. They could be a lie, but it’s too awkward to challenge them, only to have the ‘How dare you!’ pearl clutch rebuke. It’s too time consuming and risky to look closely and interrogate the lie.

And thus we become complicit. We tell ourselves ‘It looks as if it’s the truth, so I’m going to tell myself a story that it is the truth to stop the dissonance in my brain. And to have an alibi if I’m wrong. I will say ‘It looked As If it was true’. I’ll close any gaps in information or logic by making assumptions so my story is coherent’

We create our very own ‘As If’ story. Except it’s not a lie now, because it’s ours. And we don’t lie

We accept the lie and it becomes our lie. And someone else sees us accepting the lie, and thinks ‘Well, if he believes it, then…’.

We thus own our As If lie, and feel the need to defend it, not only in our own minds, but if questioned about it. We stand defiant in the witness box alongside the liar.

The original As If lie, spawns new, unique As If lies. Particularly in a bureaucracy. The burueascrucy is expert at ‘As If’ lies because it has layers of detachment from the original As If lie, each bureaucrat able to justify why they acted in reliance on the As If lie above them. ‘It came from Head Office, so I had no reason to question it.’

Eventually some poor soul gets caught out in their As If lie that may be far removed from the original As If.

‘But I was only acting on another As If!’ they plead.

The organisation doesn’t care. It acts As If it’s found the bad apple and tosses it from the barrel, and moves on.

As If it’s fixed itself.