calling people liars

Although I am right, I am considered a liar; although I am guiltless, his arrow inflicts an incurable wound. (Job 34:6)

There was another article today on the internet about someone lying about something. I don’t really remember what it was, but you hear it more and more.

There was a time when a man would call me a liar and I would be ready to fight him. A man’s integrity was worth fighting for. In the old west, it was even worth killing for. You just did not call a man a liar.

That was then. This is now. Any fool can call you a liar with even a smile on their face. It doesn’t matter whether or not it is true, the fact remains that anyone can put that label on you. And they know that you cannot do anything about it.

When people fought to preserve their integrity, it was different. You made sure of your facts before you would call someone a liar.

But people know that you can’t do anything harmful to them, so they feel empowered to call you anything they want.

We have become a society unafraid of the consequences of our actions. We feel we can do anything we want and no one can do anything about it. If anyone tries to defend themselves physically, we can just sue. And if they do it on a public stage, well, it is just politics and you should lighten up.

Children know nothing will happen to them if they malign others, so kids can be as confrontational as they want to any adult. They grow up in an almost anarchy.

Calling people names does nothing except to demean the name caller. The old adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me” is basically untrue. Names can hurt badly. Physical injuries can heal, but names carry forever.

However, the one who calls the names is hurt in many ways more than the one being named. As I said, it demeans them, it lessens them, it puts them on a lower level than the one they try to be superior over.

And it lessens society. When people are able to do anything they want without fear of repercussions society becomes ugly. It already has become so.

It also puts us in a position of trying constantly to defend ourselves. We can go anywhere because we are busy trying to defend where we were. When our society is constantly on the defensive, we do not accomplish much except anger.

When people can call others names like liar, we have lost our basic civility. In that, we have lost our civilization.