The best way to lie is to tell the truth, with a twist.

I won't lie, I've been watching way too much science fiction in the past few weeks. It's been, well, my main distraction away from my constant efforts and struggle with learning to be more social within the stiff social environment of the particular society I find myself in.

The latest in line was a series called V; some may recall the old TV series in the early/mid-80s about an invasion of reptile-like aliens wearing 'human' skin to hide their true nature and who arrive on Earth with the purpose of harvesting human flesh as food, or something of the sort. I remember that series strikingly, maybe because my mother let me watch it when I was very young and I still vividly remember a random scene were the human skin of one of the reptile-like aliens gets peeled off his face. Gruesome, indeed. Still, I liked that series, so when I came across a recent remake of it on TV I decided to watch it 'for old times' sake'.

I didn't like the new version, but the ending left me with some unexpected food for thought. I often wonder, whenever I'm watching a film, whether there is something beneath the mundane surface to be found, like messages woven into the fabric of what at first glance looks like, well, complete fantasy. I'm not talking about really bad movies where one is left with only one question along the lines of "whoever even came up with such a stupid storyline in the first place?"

I don't know... The latest version of that series ended with the aliens winning over the humans by using mind control, but the technique itself looked and sounded harmless enough. It was through a 'bliss', telling people to 'feel the peace, the love, the calm' and the only thing it really reminded me of is the New Age type of dogma that is becoming rampant nowadays. I say New Age, but one may choose to call it 'humanism' - where the same mind control is applied except that the unreachable God part is stripped. A bit like what the aliens do in the series. Of course, to see what I'm getting at one has to leave aside the fantasy woven into the storyline and focus on the way something seemingly innocent and harmless - making people feel calm, content, serene, peaceful, loved... - actually turns out to be used for a very destructive ulterior motive.

That technique portrayed in that particular series reminded me at once of the society I live in overall. Maybe the fact that it could trigger that sort of reminder explains why the series was dropped overnight at that point - who knows. The same thing happened with a series called Carnivale, dealing with other puzzling aspects that made you wonder if there wasn't more to it beyond the obvious storyline.

Anyway, everything about today's society functions that way. It will all be about the 'greater good', saving starving children, helping the world, striving for peace etc, etc... and it all sounds so good on the tin, so much so that it even helps us sleep better at night in the knowledge that despite our crazed consumption-driven habits and lust for always more we are, after all, striving for the good of all.

Governments have been using that technique in many Western countries for decades by 'making sure' to look after all its citizens, especially its children. The education system, mostly standardised into a 'one size fits all' approach is an obvious example. It is, they will say, for the greater good of your child that you should put them through it. Sounds SO good on the tin, right? Yeah, it does. And it works. Just like the alien bliss, children come out of school mostly indoctrinated and brainwashed to be a certain way. Social interaction only serves to re-enforce it everyday.

They talk about 'democracy' and freedom of speech - just to give yet another example - but if any of us really dared take full advantage of that 'freedom' we'd have to face complete social annihilation at the very least. What you are allowed to say is always constrained within more or less obvious social acceptance of it. You and I are unlikely to ever even realise that fact because we're so deeply brainwashed to naturally censor what our minds know will be rejected that we always express ourselves within very defined boundaries - whether we realise that or not. And even when one is known for being 'shocking' or 'anti-' whatever, they still remain well within the accepted range of 'freedom' allowed so far as expression is concerned.

The internet, at least at the very beginning, showed signs of being a medium through which these limits (which are made to feel as anything but limits, of course... that's the whole point) could be transcended, but today the power-that-be is fast at work to crack down on it. You know it's getting worse when even a site like YouTube won't let you watch videos outside a certain 'geography', eh.

But I'm not being naive, here. There is no escape from the fact that we always remain the products of a given society. Influences, teachings, socialisation... all these things are necessary and are factors shaping us into who we are. What's truly frightening about today's 'technique' to control us is that it's done under the cover of 'good', the so-called strive for peace and harmony etc - you name it. But beneath that veneer, this emphasis on ensuring we're all 'content' or kept busy getting drunk on consumption is only leading to one thing: the deepest apathy and mind numbness akin to that alien bliss and the effects it had on the mind of people - that of leaving them empty-eyed like brainless cattle.

Bottom line of all this? Disguise an ugly purpose under the veneer of something that sounds ethical and good, and most of us won't know any better.

The best way to lie is to tell the truth, with a twist, or two, or five.