Living a Lie

‘Living a Lie’ or existing in a state of self-deception or pretense, is one of philosophy’s most enduring puzzles. It forces us to ask: Who are we deceiving, why do we do it, and what does it cost us? The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre(1905-1980) argued that most people live in "bad faith" without even realizing it. For Sartre, bad faith happens when you adopt false values, hide behind a societal role, or pretend you have no choice in how you live. Sartre famously described a waiter who exaggerates his movements—acting too eager, too precise. He isn't just serving coffee; he is playing the "role" of a waiter to avoid confronting his ultimate freedom as a human being. The takeaway of this example is that ‘Living a Lie’ is often a defense mechanism for weak characters. It's easier to pretend "I had no choice" than to accept the terrifying freedom and responsibility of living authentically. Again, Friedrich Nietzsche’s views about the "Useful Lie" are interesting. While many thinkers view falsehood as purely negative, Friedrich Nietzsche(1844-1900) questioned our obsession with "truth." He argued that humans often create comforting lies or illusions to make existence bearable. However, he warned against living a lie out of weakness or conformity (what he called "slave morality"). What it implies is that are the ‘falsehoods you live by’ giving you strength, or are they shrinking your world out of fear?

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard(1813-1855) believed that the deepest form of despair is not knowing who you truly are—or choosing to be someone else. A person can live an apparently happy, comfortable, and respectable life; yet still be in profound despair because they are living a self that isn't truly theirs. The takeaway is that a comfortable falsehood is still a quiet form of spiritual decay in a state of ‘unconscious despair’. In a social and political context,Hannah Arendt(1906-1975) noted that when a culture or individual continually accepts small lies, the boundary between reality and fiction starts to blur entirely. When you live a lie for too long, you lose the benchmark for truth. You no longer just deceive others; you lose the capacity to recognize reality when it confronts you.

After having lived more than six decades of conscious and conscientious life in Pakistan, I had always been wondering to find an answer to this stark reality in which our society lives; some consciously to stay above the majority, others unconsciously like a waiter’s compulsion explained above. While seized of being labeled as an Utopian person, I shall raise some queries just to stir those minds, greatly at ease in their make believe comfortable environs. After 79 years of existence filled with some proud moments; however, for most part of our past and present, passing through "the eye of a needle", have we become truly an Islamic & Democratic State or even a Land of Pure People? Have the stated three pillars of the State and other unstated claimants acted and delivered as per their responsibilities enshrined in the National Constitution and as per the internationally accepted norms and ethics? Have we learned relevant lessons from our National man-made disasters(loss of East Pakistan being on the top) and natural calamities? Is our political system ensuring true public representation, or is it the continuation of a vicious cycle keeping the people deprived from the hands of the second/third generation of hereditary, unholy and unworthy rulers? Is our judicial system free and fair and is timely free justice available to the people? Is the economy of Pakistan in the hands of patriotic technocrats or in the hands of IMF/WB representatives, always worsening the economic crises and further complicating asphyxiating debt traps? Has any Pakistani Government ever satisfactorily ensured provision of affordable food, shelter, clothing, energy, education and health care to the common citizens of Pakistan? Is freedom of speech, freedom from suppression/ oppression, freedom of movement & safe travel, safety of life, property and family/self-respect, and more importantly respect of people’s mandate available in most parts of the country? Have we undertaken true introspection and honest retrospection of all national decisions taken in the past to ensure that the present national decisions are thoroughly debated in both houses of the parliament and implemented to achieve the National Interest of Pakistan i.e. Security and Well-being of the People of Pakistan?

Surely, for the ruling and affluent elite(by hook or by crook), the response will be affirmative; whereas for  the majority of the people it is negative. That is what can be described as ‘The Core Paradox of Living a Lie’. At its heart, living a lie requires a strange split in consciousness: you must somehow know the truth in order to suppress it, while simultaneously convincing yourself the lie is real. This creates internal friction—a quiet, ongoing expenditure of psychological energy that often leaves people feeling exhausted, detached, or empty. A predicament faced by a lot of people in Pakistan!

​"The most common lie is that, which one tells oneself; lying to others is relatively an exception."— Friedrich Nietzsche