A remarkable film to emerge from the United States, since it logically leads to the vexed issue of the relationship of truth to religious belief; which it inevitably shies away from.
'The Invention of Lying' suffers from the same problem as 'Fahrenheit 451'; just as you need electronics manuals and medical journals to run an advanced society - Bradbury's dystopia would probably have worked if just the reading of fiction were banned - so honesty is not just blurting out the first thing that comes into your head as if you have Asberger's. It's perfectly possible to be both dishonest and a tactless boor; and I'm sure you know such people (Shakespeare evidently did, consider Iago.)
One of my parents' greatest successes was in relentlessly and disingenuously drumming into me that you must never ever ever ever ever Tell a Lie; yet people who always tell the truth in the adult world are routinely treated as if they're autistic or simple.
In the real world telling the truth will sometimes get you into terrible trouble, so I still occasionally tie myself in knots trying to avoid giving offence without actually lying.
It can be done.
'The Invention of Lying' suffers from the same problem as 'Fahrenheit 451'; just as you need electronics manuals and medical journals to run an advanced society - Bradbury's dystopia would probably have worked if just the reading of fiction were banned - so honesty is not just blurting out the first thing that comes into your head as if you have Asberger's. It's perfectly possible to be both dishonest and a tactless boor; and I'm sure you know such people (Shakespeare evidently did, consider Iago.)
One of my parents' greatest successes was in relentlessly and disingenuously drumming into me that you must never ever ever ever ever Tell a Lie; yet people who always tell the truth in the adult world are routinely treated as if they're autistic or simple.
In the real world telling the truth will sometimes get you into terrible trouble, so I still occasionally tie myself in knots trying to avoid giving offence without actually lying.
It can be done.