The Poet's Eye – 08/30/2004

	The Poet's Eye commentary by Lightning Rod the Poets' Eye is skeptical without being cynical, innocent without being naive and critical without being judgmental


	Lies, Damn Lies and Lie Detectors
	for release 08-30-04 I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville--1831 There are certain fictions that we Americans hold as dearly as the truth. We have an almost religious faith in science which leads us to believe all manner of absurdity, from homeopathic medicine to lie detector tests. We Americans are hooked on science-fiction just like we are hooked on fundamental religion. Umberto Ecco, the Italian novelist and scholar, took a tour of the United states in the early 1970's and wrote a book called Travels in Hyperreality. It was a foreigner's view of our country much like de Tocqueville's in the 1830's. Ecco observed American society as one that enjoys combining the real with the artificial. He noted such examples as Coca-Cola, which is sugar water that in those days billed itself as "the real thing," and Disneyland, which portrays reality in an idealized form with everything animated at three-quarter scale. In America, we like to believe in fantasy. We love science-fiction, but we prefer the fiction to the science. We believe, for instance, that all our beefed up detection devices and security can stop a determined suicide bomber from boarding an airplane loaded with plastique explosive. Read the news from Russia last week about the two airliners that were crashed within three minutes of each other. Even in the post 9/11 world terrorists can down planes if they are committed to death. And we Americans also believe in the lie detector. The lie detector is a crude if not farcical device conceived and promoted in the early 1900's by William Marston, a publicity-hungry psychologist and sci-fi cartoonist who also created Wonder Woman. The polygraph has about as much to do with science as Kenny G has to do with jazz. But still an industry thrives in America based on this piece of psuedo-scientific flim-flammery, mainly in the areas of pre-employment testing, criminal investigation and counterintelligence. The contraption specifically measures heartbeat and respiration and galvanic skin response, but it tells you exactly nothing about whether someone is being truthful. In this sense, the lie detector is very much like democracy or any other religion, you have to believe in it before it works. According to the Office of Technology Assessment, "It appears that the NSA [National Security Agency] (and possibly CIA) use the polygraph not to determine deception or truthfulness per se, but as a technique of interrogation to encourage admissions." It's a tool of scientific intimidation. Urine tests fall into this category as well. They tell you absolutely nothing that you want to know (like whether someone is competent to perform his job.) They are tools of intimidation masked as science. Now, The Poet's Eye reads a news story about an Israeli company that has developed a new piece of sci-fi hardware: TEL AVIV – An Israeli firm has developed a miniature system that can provide unobtrusive lie detector tests for commercial air travelers deemed suspicious. The system uses a miniature computer chip that can provide voice analysis of those responding to questions from screeners at airports. Executives said the technology which they termed Poly-Layered Voice Analysis, measured voice for such traits as deception, excitement, stress, concentration, hesitation, anger, love and lust. The chip can be inserted in an eyeglass frame and allow screeners to determine with 98 percent accuracy whether a suspicious traveler has intentions to launch an attack during flight, I had to laugh when I read this. Just by putting on the glasses, an agent of Big Brother can see anything you do or think. If you believe that, I have a Dept. of Homeland Security to sell you. The Poet's Eye can see around corners and has X-ray vision. Not even the girls bathroom is safe from me. I'm going to pass out the Poly-Layered Voice Analysis X-ray glasses to the delegates in this week's Republican convention. I wonder what Gdub's acceptance speech will sound like through a lie detector? "If a spectacle is going to be particularly imposing, I prefer to see it through somebody else's eyes, because that man will always exaggerate. Then, I can exaggerate his exaggeration, and my account of the thing will be the most impressive,"-- Mark Twain “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Benjamin Disraeli (often mistakenly attributed to Mark Twain--there were no lie detectors then)
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		"I can tell if you are lying, but you can't tell if I am lying."

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