Fake it till you make it. Hinduism view on it?

Last Updated on June 12, 2023

This is the Mantra we hear over and over from entrepreneurs. But, it is not limited to them. We have seen other people using the idiom as well.

We have also seen people faking all the time and never working on “make it” part. Sometimes, Faking it is making it. I mean Success is Success whether it is fake or real. As long as people are congratulating you on your success, you are as successful as anyone can be. We see this happening every day on social media.

And, there are some who are faking it but will never make it and even unmake it.

I think Elizabeth Holmes is the best example. To be fair, she at least appeared to be successful for a while as she was on the cover of Forbes, Fortune, and Inc magazines. Out of desperation to become successful, she even dressed like Steve Jobs by wearing a black turtle neck.

But, in 2016 her company, Theranos, which was once valued at 9 billion dollars by Forbes, filed for bankruptcy and in November 2022, she was convicted of defrauding investors and sentenced to 11 years.

So, in this post, I will try to show that lies run our society rather than the truth. I begin with the Business world then move on to politics to make a case that important conversations are set and driven by lies. In the last section, I will discuss how Hindu tradition explained this with a beautiful perspective and an analogy on this matter.

In Business World

We all need to make a sale to earn a living whether we are a salesperson or not. Even if you are a worker/employee, you still have to make a sale to your potential employers. You sell your resources like time and skills. You do it through a sophisticated form of advertisement known as a Resume or Cover Letter.

Just like any piece of advertisement, by displaying all the projects you worked on in the previous organizations in your resume, you are showcasing the value you will be bringing to the company you are applying for.

We know that everyone lies on their resume. Everyone exaggerates about the roles and responsibilities they had in their previous organizations. Every job applicant says that they were a critical resource in their previous company even when the CEO themselves is not considered critical.

In the business world, just like landing a job, what counts is results. Nobody cares how those results are produced. We don’t mind slashing the process or SOP even if that means laying off some workers. We will do anything and everything we can to keep the company’s balance sheet strong.

At the end of the day or a quarter or a financial year, what matters is the company’s financial statements.

It is not uncommon to see companies overstating their growth projections. It is simply good PR. It sets a strong narrative among all the stakeholders.

This telling-lies is not just limited to leadership and employees. Middle management employs this technique all the time. Managers promise their subordinates that they will receive benefits, hikes, and promotions if they do better or go the extra mile. It is safe to say that, after a performance review, some are bound to get disappointed.

So, lies are not just lies. They are part of presentations, narratives, and rhetoric because of their pragmatic value. This rhetoric is the main component of sales and marketing. But, it is the operations department who are responsible for the product quality and management of an organization. This means there should be good coordination between these two departments to tell good lies. I think this is where a technical salesperson comes into the picture.

However, this rhetoric must be anchored to reality. Though exaggerated claims are common in sales, they could have a devastating impact on the economy. The best example is the Great Recession in 2008 brought about by selling sub-prime mortgage-based security with AAA ratings. If that is not an exaggeration amounting to lies, I don’t know what is.

In politics

We all have seen politicians trashing their opponent and fear-mongering if their opponent comes to power. This has been the trope in the speeches made by politicians since ancient greek democracy.

Even when they are not using these questionable means to appeal to people, they still have to lie for practical reasons. As a candidate in an election, they have to say they are going to win when all the polls are saying otherwise and their chances of winning are slimmer than their chances of getting lightning struck during the campaign. And, also as a representative of a party, they have to go along to get along. This means lying about their position on an issue if it is different from party’s

Politicians don’t have the luxury to uphold the principles and virtues they believe in. They might strongly believe in something, but they have to say and do whatever it takes to get the support of people. This means telling lies and making false promises. By telling this over and over again, they make it a reality.

Politicians have to be Machiavellian- End Justifies the Means. Of course, the End is coming to power, staying in power, and becoming more powerful. Politicians will use every strategy available to achieve that. It is not important whether they are moral or not as long as it doesn’t hurt their public image.

Nicolo Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat, in medieval times, said the public is credulous and fickle-minded. People believe everything that they see and hear without verifying the truth. They are too busy in their own lives and can’t spend much time on policies. So, politicians have to do whatever it takes including telling lies, cheating, and conspiring to achieve their goals.

One of the biggest lies ever told in modern times is in the early 2000s. Even when there was no evidence, the then US president George W Bush simply claimed that Saddam Hussein had been building weapons of mass destruction and soon after, launched a war against Iraq.

Now, we live in the age of Tik Tok and 24 hours news cycle, where the attention span of everyone is less than 10 seconds – an average time for a monkey to finish a banana. So, It is a perfect setup for politicians to get away with anything. All their deadly gaffes, false promises, and past crimes are easily forgotten.

In recent times, no politician has done this much better than Donald Trump has. He is a media genius and a demagogue who knew how to set the narrative better than traditional politicians. During his presidential campaign, he constantly made false and wild promises like “he would build the wall and make Mexico pay for it“.

This is not the only lie he had told by the end of his term. The Washington Post fact-checker tracked and compiled all his lies. It amounted to 30,573 lies by January 2021, an average of about 21 lies per day by the end of his presidency. His whole campaign was based on disinformation. When he lost in the 2020 Presidential election, he even called the election rigged.

Trump’s tweet about 2020 Presidential Election being rigged

There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

In UK, the shortest-serving former Prime Minister Liz Truss also made unrealistic promises in the campaign. She even got elected as Prime Minister on the same platform after Boris Johnson resigned for his lies. When she rolled out her mini-budget with the Unfunded Tax Cut plan, little did she know that the only cut she is rolling out is for her tenure as Prime Minister serving only for 44 days.

Her plan based on borrowing resulted in the bond market crash, Pound fell to the weakest level against the Dollar, a crisis in parts of the pension system. Finally, the central bank had to step in to buy government bonds to restore confidence in the market.

Hindu Tradition

“Satya meva Jayate” – “Truth alone triumphs” is the slogan on our(Indian) national emblem. But, to some extent, we all need to fake. We tell white lies all the time.

Especially, in the social-media age, where people exaggerate if not openly lie in their posts, we have to lie too. We have to lie to fit in. We have to lie to stand out. We have to lie to communicate our ideas effectively. We have to lie to convince. We lie all the time.

This has become necessary. This degradation of morality is explained perfectly in Hinduism.

According to Hindu tradition, Kali-yuga is the fourth yuga(period of time) of the yuga cycle after the Satya yuga, Dwapara yuga, and Treta yuga. It said that Satya Yuga is referred to as the Golden age because Dharma(righteousness) during Satya Yuga stood on four legs. With the degradation of morality with time, Dharma has lost one leg in each passing yuga. So, now in Kali Yuga being the 4th one, Dharma stands on only one leg.

This clearly paints a picture of why morality has stooped so low. This is a part of the yuga cycle. We just happened to be at the Kali-yuga, where truth is not as much valued as lies.

Coming back to the aphorism – “Satya meva Jayate” – “Truth alone triumphs”. I would love to see a world of Satya Yuga where Satya-Truth is appreciated. Unfortunately, we are not in that world.

Not only that, the aphorism – “Satya meva Jayate” – “Truth alone triumphs” which was itself true in Satya Yuga has lost all its meaning and became a lie. Now, “Truth alone fails” would be the appropriate aphorism.

Or, If the “Satya” in “Satya meva Jayate” is referring to one specific true statement- “Lies win” or “Asatya meva Jayate” then, we can see some value in that statement.

We are in the age of Lies, Damned lies, and Statistics. In this age, not only is the media being manipulated but also there are think tanks with hidden agendas, funded by corporate interests and political parties, constantly misrepresenting reality and even fabricating a new reality with numbers. The obvious solution seems to be to adopt a skeptical mindset and use critical thinking to form informed opinions.