Perjury, Photo: Garfinkelcriminallaw.com
by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
In the book of Psalms, in the Old Testament, we find the statement “Truth will spring forth from the earth.” And in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we hear “Murder will out.”
When I look at the thing called “truth,” I do so from a sociobiological perspective. There, we are told that every person (perhaps every mammal) wants what is best for himself – both small items and large goals. He would like other individuals to not get in the way of his achieving that. Deception is an important way to deal with someone who may try to get in your way.
So you deceive her. However, that creates in her a desire to expose what you’ve done. If she works hard at that exposure, truth will spring forth — not directly from the earth but from her efforts. It is the same with “murder will out.” A lot of people have an interest in catching a murderer as it is dangerous to let a murderer hang around, planning more of same. They will make an effort to identify that person – murder will out.
Our Situation Today
Every day I get shocked by some new way in which the powerful produce wrong information, and/or in the way they punish truth-seekers. I think the situation is so out of hand that it will cause society to fall apart. I am old and I want to tell the young how society held together in the old days.
Trust and honesty were solid expectations in my society, mid-20th century. It was odd to see someone betray a trust. A liar was hated or ridiculed. You knew where you stood. You knew, for example, that a doctor would act ethically – it was in his/her job description. You knew that if a sign in the bank said “Deposits up to $250,000 are guaranteed,” this would be honored.
But today we are told that doctors may disregard the code of ethics (Duh, ethics? what’s that?), and that anything related to finance is a scheme to defraud the public. I don’t mean that the rate of naughtiness has gone up. (Maybe it has.) I mean, and this is much worse, that we are told it is NORMAL to have a society in which truth does not play a significant role.
So let me discuss this issue as a biological, nay zoological, one, K? This article is part of my series on Crime, as deceit is a major type of crime. Generally speaking, dishonesty is outlawed.
A Sociobiological Thesis
While it’s OK to picture the members of a tribe working together for common goods (such as helping the children, or inventing technology), it can be useful to picture, instead, that each “unit” (i.e., person) is in a constant battle with all other units.
Some of the weapons in this battle are physical strength, good position in a hierarchy, or membership in a subset of society that protects itself, such as an extended family or an ethnic minority.
But for now I’m zeroing in on just one aspect of the “unit versus unit” clash, in which deception plays a role. In this clash, both lying and truth-revealing can function as weapons. The goal is for Ego to get the resource he desires. He may get it by lying, or he may get it by truth-revealing.
On my desk is a book by Martin Stevens entitled “Cheats and Deceits: How Animals and Plants [wow! plants] Exploit and Mislead.” A blurb on the back cover, by Dr George McGavin, says: “This book lifts the lid on a wondrous world populated with confidence tricksters and fraudsters.”
They are not conscious tricksters and fraudsters, however. Most of the cases of deceit among animals have to do with mimicry and camouflage. Both of those “behaviors” are an innate response to a situation. A prey animal needing to avoid being eaten may change its appearance, or its sound, to fool the predator. Or, a predator may disguise its plan of attack to fool the prey. The behavior itself evolved by natural section. Or was designed by God, if you prefer.
“Harmless” Lying
What about humans? Clearly, we prey on other species (we do it all the time for food — and for labor, as when oxen pull the plow for us). But this discussion of crime is about how we deceive a fellow human to gain some benefit. Offering him a better deal then we intend to make good on, is typical. In the business world, this could entail false advertising of a product, or souped-up promises of rewards by an employer. “A vacay every 6 weeks.”
There is a whole profession dedicated to making one’s offer look better than it is — “public relations.” I imagine the very fact that this has become a respectable trade had added to the problem of honesty in areas that aren’t even covered by the PR people. “We all understand that a vendor’s gotta do what a vendor’s gotta do.” Making yourself look your best is normal behavior. Amen.
Oh, but because it’s normal, it’s acceptable, right? Wait. I said above that things are getting out of hand today. This may be simply due to the volume of false advertising and the lack of will to criticize it. What if it became acceptable to “lie to your heart’s content”? That would damage the practice of honor and at the same time diminish trust. Daily existence would get pretty unpredictable.
We do at least have some ability to draw the line, though. If the cheating behavior is egregious, you can sue the person in court. Oh, heck — even there, our society today (in my opinion, and in my experience) is fascinated by the capacity for deception. Courts are not bastions of truth. And it takes only a few ‘lawyer jokes’ to let you know what people think of that profession.
Harmful Lying
A crucial use of deceit in human life is the bad guys’ propensity to deny that what they’re doing is wrong, and escape punishment. Watch them — they really do bother to cover up their ‘works.’ And if successful at cancelling investigation, they are free to continue their bad deeds. Presently, powerful people have, by sheer endurance, turned off the social function of laying blame on harm doers.
This is where I came into the writing of this article. I had just perused a book entitled Torture and Truth. by _____. Plus, because this is the decade of The Covid Twenties, I have been researching the outrageous behavior of the medical profession. (Actually, I wrote a musical about called The Covid Mikado!) Plus, yesterday ( ) , Israel dropped such a large bomb on Gaza that all the people near it got buried alive — though it is hardly mentioned.
Plus, I recently revised two of my books about false flags to make them sound more blame-y. One is about the Sandy Hook massacre which absolutely did not happen, yet hundreds of official personnel are still making gestures of belief in its reality. (Name of my book: “The Human Mind and Sandy Hook’s Unreality.”)
The other false-flag book is about Boston’s alleged bombing at the Marathon in 2023. If you are still “on board” with that bombing, may I ask you to please grow up. Name of book: “Stop Lying about the Marathon Bombing – Or Else.”
Needless to say, with such subjects occupying gigabytes on my keyboard, I am continuously sickened by, and worried about, the state into which we have sunk. I am also furious that most educated Americans, who used to be patriotically proud of our penchant for criticizing government, now act like it is some kind of sin to be negative about what the Big Boys are doing.
What the Big Boys Are Doing
Generally, the Big Boys can do whatever they wish, as our standard weapon of truth has been stored in mothballs. Murder will NOT out — you are not supposed to notice when the government kills citizens. Truth will NOT spring forth from the earth – it’s better to be in denial, isn’t it? “The Big Boys are planning to enslave us? Don’t be silly.” “Food shortages are on the way? Oh, come on. They wouldn’t do that.” “Hey, Mary, did you go off your meds?”
Actually, what the Big Boys are doing includes, I believe, the following:
*1. Poison as many people as possible, especially children, with vaccines.
*2. Close the banks and deprive everybody of their savings.
*3. Cancel all pension and welfare payments, due to national bankruptcy.
*4. Destroy farms, and break up any part of the food supply-chain.
*5. Close down all communications, and maybe electricity. What fun!
*6. Loosen on the population the violent inmates of local, or foreign, prisons.
*7. Nominate a few social groups as the real troublemakers who need punishing.
*8. Establish a new kind of human brain via Artificial Intelligence.
*9. Stimulate a belief in the appearance of Satan, magic, aliens, and UFO’s.
*10. Outlaw accountability by government, or military, for anything they do.
Censorship
The most telling aspect of our suppression of truth is plain-and-simple censorship. This is amazingly being done, with a smile, by Academia, by public libraries, and by small newspapers.
The phenomenon has been analyzed by psychologists as a natural reaction to fear, or loss of social spirit. Or a case of people going like lambs to the slaughter “because, well, you know, that’s what’s happening today. Wake up and smell the new coffee. Ho hum.” Humans are great conformists, that’s for sure.
Well, how about conforming to a new procedure? How about talking – ad nauseam if necessary – about what the Big Boys are doing? Maybe the statements I make above are wrong. OK. You could hold a mock trial in which the Bog Boys are accused of whatnot, and their attorney (starring you in that role) defends them. The attorney shows where Mary is wrong and asks for an apology. I will gladly apologize if my “List of Ten” is incorrect in any, or all, of the particulars.
Don’t forget, though, that for the mock trial, the “defendants” have to testify to their story under oath. And if the testimony is proven to be dishonest, the crime of perjury is being committed. See? This is how we use to keep society more or less intact. Society makes up sensible rules and all members have to stick by them.
Outside the Law, Lawless
Someone haughtily claims to be not a member of society? Fine. If not a member, he is outside the law. You could declare war on him, as a foreign invader. Or you could apply the Law of Outlawry to him. (That is an established part of our legal legacy.)
If the BIg Boys are “all over the place,” you may as well name them “hosti humani generis” – the enemy of all mankind. Nations used to use this tactic internationally on pirates, or domestically on highwaymen.
What you don’t want to do, if you have any common sense, is put up with the status quo. Think back to the evolution of deceit. It is indeed biologically normal to try to cheat. And because of that dear fact of life, humans historically wised up and formulated ways to put some limits on deception.
If today we have foolishly let that sort of practice slip away, we need only call on already existing emotions and rational strategies. “Yoo-hoo, Emotions and Strategies, step up to the plate, please.”
And that’s what would occur. It would fall into place – because it always does.