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Comment by hackable_sand | Hacker News Reader

> At some point we as a society need to agree on our truth in order to get anything done.

These are known as half-truths. We do settle for lies in order to do whatever it is people feel they need to do.

We also settle for lies because there are just things we don't understand yet, but our models are currently correct, and possibly collapsing over millenia to a stable truth.

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As someone who writes fiction, I’d like to note that one often needs to write really complex lies in order to effectively transmit a single truth. You can’t just tell people anything, you have to prepare the mind to receive the knowledge.

What do you think of Ayn Rand’s works of fiction?

Generally as lies wrapped in lies. You can use the same techniques to push a falsehood as well. Which is not to say Rand did not actually believe her message — she did, which is why the books are so effective. But they have given the upper class an exaggerated sense of their own importance, and a conviction that government only stands in their way. Meanwhile over in reality, the more a state is run by oligarchs, the worse a place it is to live.

I don't really disagree, and don't appreciate Rand, but an oligarchy can be disguised as something else, and people will feel relief when it is replaced by an open oligarchy, because one means of gaining power is to give people what they need.

This is a very interesting comment. Is it possible for you elaborate on that?

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