Pro Wrestling, Faith, and The Invention of Lying
No film in years has affected me like "The Invention Of Lying". It depicts a world in which there is no lying, no fiction, and no religious faith. Then one man invents all of that.
In recent years, I have overcome my rage at having been betrayed and deceived by those I trusted for guidance. I have come to realize that if two points of a triangle are honesty and deception, religious faith occupies the third point.
Pro wrestling is in this category. It is not exactly "fiction", because there is an unspoken agreement among its fans to never admit it's fake, even though they know it is. They don't really care that it's fake. As an actor, and even as governor of Minnesota, James George Janos has never once broken character as Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Their fans live in a consensus unreality, spending their entire life, in or out of the ring, in a perpetual wink-wink nudge-nudge, because they find it rewarding to do so.
Most moderate, mainstream churches make very little attempt to deceive. They don't need to. Like wrestling, truth or falsehood is beside the point, so it doesn't matter if you notice. You are expected to be polite enough not to point it out.
Roleplaying at least allows you to break character when you are done acting, and return to this world. If roleplaying subsumes the rest of the world, it's not fiction anymore, it's faith. When an assertion about the nonfiction world is disinterested in truth, however sincere it may be, it is impossible for me to categorize it as "honesty". It exists as a separate category.
Imagine we are playing Dominion. "Watch what I do with this Province card," I say to you. "I am going to put it in my sleeve like this-- see? Then at the end I'll pull it out, put it into my deck, score it, and win the game."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I am asking you to play along."
I cannot call that "cheating". It is too overt. By analogy, faith is not lying. Religious teachings are quite direct in asking us to suspend normal rules and play along. They don't pretend otherwise. How do you say something untrue? As the film demonstrated, it's easy: ignore the normal rule of looking, and instead, just choose. You are now playing a new truth-game with separate truth-rules that apply only within your church. The price of admission to a loving and supportive community of faith is a willingness to sacrifice the default truth-rules imposed by reality. You just have to sacrifice them when in church, and can partition off the rest of the week.
Disagree with secular points of view all you like. But secularists don't hire an entire industry to encourage us to use choosing as a substitute for looking.
I don't want to play the truth-game with alternate rules, but I can live and let live in a society that does-- except when a special revelation is imposed on the default version of reality accessible to everyone's sense organs. That's cheating, and should be called out. "Put that Province card back on the stack right now, and earn it. You don't get to just choose."
"The Invention of Lying" isn't for everyone-- truth-telling is awkward for a reason. If you enjoy Gervais' other work, "The Office", you may have a sufficient tolerance for cringe-worthy humor. And yet when shown a world of complete candor, my reaction of horror was mixed with longing. How simple their world is.
Comments
darksunlight on Apr. 26, 2010 4:20 AM
Although I haven't seen the movie, but really want to, the idea appeals to me. While yes, those of us who have grown up with lies would feel hurt/upset at suddenly being thrust into a world where no one softballs the hard truths...someone who has grown up in said world would, theoretically, be used to it. It would make a lot of things so much easier.
"Why didn't I get the raise?"
"Our company doesn't like to give raises, and my personal opinion is that you're lazy."
"Did you steal that card?"
"Yes I did, and I'm not sorry, in fact, I'm likely to repeat this crime."
"Do you want to go out with me?"
"Not really, but I'd love to take advantage of your desire for my body to get you to buy me things."
le-bebna-kamni on Apr. 26, 2010 4:48 PM
I really liked The Invention of Lying, and I admit it left me in an odd philosophical funk for a few days afterward. The implications of such a world are amazing -- a government can't hide its motives; agreements can't be signed in bad faith; con artists obviously don't exist. But at the same time, the ability to lie is also based on a certain ability to imagine hypothetical, non-true situations (although not necessarily false) -- which means we also can't tell stories for entertainment or create abstract art.
I think those of us who are inept at constructing certain social fictions felt relief at the movie...but at the same time it was jarring to the ego. I actually liked getting out of the awkward teenage years because people learned basic civilities like "You don't have to like someone, but that doesn't mean you tell them that every day to their face".
I remember when we've had conversations about this where we'd disagree about how religion could be false, but not a lie. It's really cool that this movie demonstrated what I've never been very good at explaining. I'm glad you liked it!
zifferent on Apr. 27, 2010 12:06 AM
Somewhat on topic did you the latest from Herr Popa?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/04/margaret-warner-pope-describes-dangers-of-new-digital-age.html
Apparently free dissemination of information is a threat to his sovereignty. Scary thought; people might think for themselves! Better to attempt to stuff the geany back in the bottle. Nothing to see here, move along.
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