MAX Scheler, known for his ponderous tome on the material ethics of values, coined the term "organic mendacity" in his slender but powerful treatise on Ressentiment. "Beyond all conscious lying and falsifying, there is a deeper 'organic mendacity.' There is 'organic mendacity' whenever a man's mind admits only those impressions which serve his 'interest' or his instinctive attitude. And this does not have to do with the subtleties of hermeneutics, but with institutionalized mendacity - the institutional acceptance of lying, of concealing real intent, of threatening without sounding like it. Institutionalized mendacity has worked against the interests of nations and states, which cannot plan nor direct their autonomy when subterfuge is everywhere.

Source: Manila Times July 06, 2021 15:00 UTC