The government imposed restrictions on trade with Israel.
Even though the news was that the government imposed restrictions on trade with Israel, nobody — except those who have sworn to read it just as it is written — read it that way. It was a natural occurrence. After all, when you tell someone you’ve lied to before that “I will now be honest,” you can’t be surprised if they trust you less, despite expecting the opposite due to your promise. It’s as if they heard “I will not be honest anymore.” Once you say “I am now honest,” you blur the distinction between saying “I am a liar” and “I am honest.”
However, this statement from the liar might only be surprising and meaningful to a listener in a non-democratic setting. Now that we are in a democratic environment, perhaps this news did not gain the status of real news. Because it doesn’t say anything unknown. But it’s not exactly like that.
It’s like a riddle, actually. The real News is hidden in the potential reactions of all listeners, including us. After this confession, listeners can fundamentally experience two or three emotions or a mixture of these emotions in certain proportions. Actually, the real news is hidden in how the listeners receive this lie, in which emotion, and in what proportion, because this tells us who else might be lying.
If they are happy, know that happiness does not have a single meaning. If they are sad, sadness does not have a single meaning either. Our ability to react correctly is not dependent on understanding others’ reactions. On the contrary, if we can react correctly, we will better understand the meaning of everyone’s reactions. Because all these will be the reactions we choose not to give.
