The Grasshopper has been on an anti-nose growth kick over the weekend. He is responsible for my weekly Grasshopper Note, the title of which is: SLEEPING LIES WILL DOG YOU and now today’s post: EFFECTIVE LYING.

EFFECTIVE LYING is probably a course some people would sign up for but it would be a very short course because there is only one tenet to follow. Here is The Grasshopper’s whole curriculum: “To lie more effectively, tie into the lie they already believe in.”

When someone’s belief is based on a lie, it’s so easy to make up other lies that resemble the ones they already worship and then, using biblical terms, lead them to the altar for slaughter.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than on the internet. I’m sure that you, like me, have Facebook friends that post things that support their political or philosophical views. I’m sure that you are just as aware that many of these “truths” are concocted lies that pander to the posting person’s prejudice. They are quick to buy in without investigation and then pass it along as “the smoking gun.” They have been duped, they have been manipulated and need a primer on “Effective Lying” to see the light.

Reminds me of a story . . . I was listening to radio personality, Howard Stern in December of 1994 when he predicted the outcome of the O.J. Simpson murder trial before it began when he heard his co-host Robin Quivers announce the racial makeup of the jury – 9 Blacks, 1 Hispanic, 2 Caucasians. He said, “Robin, we may as well start painting OJ’s house.”

His point was that jury would not convict OJ. Did he mean that jury was incapable of being impartial due to race? No, he foresaw what OJ’s attorneys would do with the issue of race as he, on-the-spot, imitated the jurors talking about their experience with the police in black communities. Stern knew the attorneys would pander and tie a lie to the experience many of the jurors already owned. It was a brilliant defense.

Not all Effective Lying is bad. Take the doctor that gives his hypochondriac patient a placebo knowing full well that the patient’s belief in the prescription is what will make the prescription have a chance of working. He effectively lied by tying into an experience that was already there.

Effective lying is like electricity. You can use it to illuminate a city or electrocute someone. The choice is yours. My hope is that you’ll come away from this post with a finer appreciation of how you are being manipulated by effective liars, and also know how to use effective lying for the benefit of others.

All the best,

John