Or, When People Listen to you, What are they Hearing?
I'm reading a very enjoyable spy thriller. A very basic explanation of the book would be that it's about retired CIA operatives (now well into their late-60s and 70s) who undertake an international operation for personal reasons, but which has grave national, and international, ramifications. But enough about my life...
This post is about the something I learned in the book, about the way in which the CIA used to (and perhaps still does) classify incoming information. We all have that problem, don't we?
The letters, A thru D, stand for the category of the person delivering the information, "A" being somone almost always trustworthy. "B" and "C" are people descending moral fiber and then we get to "D", someone who is never trustworthy.
Then the numbers 1 thru 4 stand for the degree of credibility of the message itself, "1" being very likely true, down to "4", information very likely untrue.
When we're little children, just about any adult who takes the time to talk to us is "A-1", we pretty much believe every adult is trustworty and every message we get to be the truth. You can see where this has gotten us. Too bad CIA doesn't stand for Children's Intelligence Agency, because if ever there is a time in our lives when we need to know how to handle incoming information, it's when we're kids.
Can you imagine if there were someone whispering in a kid's ear about the information the kid is getting? Someone objective, I mean...
As kids, we give A-1 ratings to the stories of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, etc., etc., etc. And these are from people we believe love us!
But you have to be careful. No system is perfect. Because information society has labeled A-1, meaning the messenger is reliable and the information probably the truth, has turned out to be worse than bogus. Like when my first wife told me women tire of sex... I actually started to believe her!!
And information labeled D-4 by society, meaning the messanger is a known total liar and the message most likley intrue, has turned out to be a golden truth. Like when my first ex-wife told me her married sister had the hots for me. This seemingly blatant untruth from someone I couldn't trust turned out to be true!!
So while no system is perfect you have to at least have a system in order to have exceptions to the order of your system. Or else you have labels left over!
The sooner we learn to filter incoming information, the more likely we are to put our lives in good order. It's really a shame that there is no way to be certain about some truths, or untruths, until after you've made a committment. But that's a subject for another post.
(And yes, not mentioning Religion in this post almost killed me.)
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6 comments:
Let's see:
You didn't make it without mentioning religion.
Are you saying Santa isn't real?
I want to hear how you found out your first ex-sister-in-law had the hots for you.
How many ex's you got?
Philosophy and science taught me that truth is realative.
I have an A1 rating. I never lie.
Nibbles, two ex-wives and one, finally, permanent wife.
I lied, it was the second ex-wife's sister who had the hots for me, but that ex-wife was also A1 so I had to change it to the first ex-wife. And it's no great credit to me, because that slut had the hots for anything with or without a foreskin. She was very ecumenical.
My second wife was sooo nice that when she got married again, she invited my current (and forever) wife to be a bridesmaid. It was the first Mafia wedding I'd ever attended. I'll never forget it.
Santa is a real as a heart attack.
I typed the word religion, but I swear, I didn't mention it...
That would make a great story (or I'm just really nosey) ie
If she was so nice why's she your ex?
If she was so good, why's her sister into sharing?
Did your current and permanant wife act as a bridesmaid for your ex?
Did you get a wedding favor?
Sounds like a very interesting situaation.
See, it all SOUNDS interesting, but when the facts are known, it's all very boring.
I married the second wife on the rebound and she married me because I was her ticket out of a very unstable situation; we're both nice people, but we simply weren't meant for each other. So after two years, we amicably divorced. She met her now husband and I met my now wife years later; we all hit it off, but one doesn't get too buddy-buddy with Mafia guys. When they decided to tie the knot, she asked my wife to be a bridesmaid (we weren't married yet.)
Her sister, the slut, was a slut and while I might have been tempted, the situation involving temptation never arose.
I, as in me personally, did not get a wedding favor.
See? All very boring...
You could have lied to me; D
lying, with the intent to deceive, is too much work.
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