Applying it to the World

Not only is deception a theme seen quite frequently in literature, but also in real life. I have shared with you some examples of deception in my life in some of my previous posts; now I would like to talk about some worldly examples.
It is not uncommon for deception to appear in the media, masquerading  as truth or goodness. It is something politicians love to use because even though people know politicians lie, they are willing to blindly follow them. Many people in positions of power make promises they can't keep, and they know they can't keep them, but they lie to the people they are leading and they lie to themselves. This is how they have earned their reputation as liars and untrustworthy snakes. (I'm not saying all politicians are like this, but that quite a few of them are.) People choose to ignore what they should know are untruths and believe the lies they are fed. Why? The lie is easier to accept. It's easier not to have to worry about things when you believe someone is taking care of them for you. The truth is unpleasant. Not ignoring it means work because then you'd have to find someone really trustworthy.
The point is, there are a lot of people who use their power as a means of deception because the public would rather turn a blind eye and follows them over a cliff than do the work to find someone honest. Sometimes it's impossible, so why not go the easy way?
In class this year we studied advertising and the different tactics the ad companies use to get people to buy their products. A lot of advertisements feature lies and deception. Statistics, actors, distortion of reality - all these things are used to reel people in. The sad thing is, they work. People are deceived because the world we live in tells us to believe the lies. We are told to have specific characteristics, and these companies tell us their products will help us with that. We believe them because we want to live up to what the world wants from us. We want to fit in. We deceive ourselves when we blindly allow these ads to sell their products to us. It doesn't seem fair, but when you think of it, many of us do the same thing as they do, only on a different scale. We deceive others with our appearances. We say things we shouldn't say. We distort the truth so that other people will think of us a certain way.
There is deception all around us, and the only way we are going to overcome it is by stopping it, first with ourselves, and then with the bigger picture.