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110
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1990
I
Art Of Lying
Continued from preceding page
tion for the other two books,
I realized how much Jews
had been lied to in their long
history," he says. "And I
realized breathing and lying
are our two most common
human activities. So writing
the book was inevitable."
Once he completed another
project, The Blunder Book
(1984), which documented
history's biggest mistakes,
Goldberg focused his
energies on Lies. Working on
the book at night and on
weekends, Goldberg says
lying turned out to be an
easy topic to research.
"If you have a topic in
mind, it's amazing how often
it pops up in the [news]
media," he says. "It's like
detective work. You come
across .a glimmer of some-
thing and a pattern takes
place. Trivia doesn't interest
me. I'm more interested in
how these things placed
together make a statement
about the human. condition."
In The Book of Lies, Gold-
berg emphasizes that lying
is not always a negative
aspect of human nature. In
fact, he says toying with the
truth can sometimes be
viewed as an act of compas-
sion.
"When you don't want to
hurt somebody, lying can be
a judicious way of dealing
with a situation," he says.
"Sometimes in a career, you
can't be brutally honest with
someone without destroying
their self-image and self-
worth.
"Psychologists say when a
child starts lying, it shows
they're maturing intellec-
tually as long as it isn't con-
tinual. The child learns to
tell Aunt Emma she looks
nice today rather than say-
ing, "Aunt Emma, what's
that wart on your nose?' "
But Goldberg says lying
inevitably leads to destruc-
tion.
"Telling the truth isn't
always the best policy, but it
usually brings out the best
in us," he says.
Goldberg says he found
lying cuts across all racial,
religious, ethnic and econ-
omic backgrounds. He ad-
mits thatprofessionals who
work with money and power
— such as businessmen,
lawyers and politicians —
might operate in circles
where the temptation to lie
is virtually irresistible.
But intensive lying, says
Goldberg, is more of an in-
herent trait than an ac-
quired quality.
"You can't really label
people by their professions
Alan H. Feiler writes for the
Baltimore Jewish Times.
or backgrounds," he said.
"Lying is more of a human
nature kind of response."
With The Book of Lies,
Goldberg says he was par-
ticularly trying to reach out
to Jews.
"We as a people have tried
to rise above things such as
lying," he says. "We've col-
lectively [stressed honesty
and] tried to give rather
than take from society. I
think Jews are the people of
the book with guidelines for
how to stop the inhumanity
of man." ❑
NEWS
Canadian Group
Defends Student
Toronto (JTA) — The
Canadian Civil Liberties
Association has asked a
Toronto school board to
revoke a ruling that pro-
hibits a 10-year-old pupil
from attending class in a T-
shirt with a pro-Palestinian
slogan.
In a letter to the Scarboro
School Board of
Metropolitan Toronto, the
Canadian Civil Liberties
Association said officials at
the Knob Hill School had
"misdirected themselves"
when they removed Yes-
meen Musa from her
classroom last June.
She was wearing a T-shirt
showing a hand grasping a
Palestinian flag and the
slogan "We Fight For Our
Right," which Jewish
teachers found offensive.
Wearing another shirt, the
girl was readmitted to the
class.
The Civil Liberties Associ-
ation wants the school board
to apologize to Miss Musa's
parents for the "mistreat-
ment which was inflicted
upon their little girl."
Alan Borovoy, general
counsel for the Civil Liber-
ties Association, said the T-
shirt "falls within sensible
limits and does not contain
any racial generalities or
advocate violence." The
school's acting principal
removed the child from the
classroom after two Jewish
teachers complained.
Ross Boden, the school
board's superintendent of
community and student ser-
vices, said the shirt express-
ed a "political statement
through symbolism and
words that advocated
fighting and violence," and
was therefore contrary to
board policy.
The Canadian Arab Fed-
eration said it would file a
complaint with the Ontario
Human Rights Commission.