Pino I TELL NO LIES short version.
By Dario Poli.
“To see what is in front of your nose needs a constant struggle.” George Orwell
As young child raised in the tough industrial centre of Scotland, amidst a culture that prided itself on its home grown achievements, past traditions of clan unity, honour, truthful expression, rebelliousness, heroism both socially and on the many glorified battlefields of wars, was not an easy experience to say the least.
The first hearing of the name Pinocchio by an Italian author and Freemason Carlo Lorenzini (known by his pen name Carlo Collodi, (1826-1890) being mentioned in local schools, was quite a shock to me, as I am of Italian origins, not the best national badge to carry around, after more than five years of war involving Italians fighting against British imperial power that included the brave Scots.
Pinocchio was a Walt Disney film first launched in 1940 during World War Two, which I saw many years later as a 5 year old impressionable boy and it was quite an experience for me.
Amazed to see how a carved wooden doll could come alive, be lifelike and to learn that if he the doll, did not tell the absolute truth, his nose size would increase dramatically within seconds. I was fascinated by this idea, with its funny scenes and shocked by what I saw in the film, which also contained darker uncomfortable moments.
Because of my natural curiosity, I became fascinated by nose sizes thereafter and would watch if any of my school pals told an untruth, to see if there was any increase in size of this important facial feature, or in its colour, such as a blush pink colour.
It was to no avail, as lies came and went, without any visible changes much to my disappointment, especially as I recalled that I had often been cautioned by my parents, not to be nosy and not to put my nose into others people’s affairs.
To see Pinocchio’s many strange adventures and to learn that even then in the 1800’s that very young children were being lured by gifts, then abducted by ruthless criminals and sold as chattels to persons unknown…I found this part of the story rather scary, I do recall.
Nevertheless despite the dark side of the Pinocchio fable, its nose growing seed was planted in my young, susceptible, subconscious mind and I remained interested in this fascinating idea from Collodi’s imaginative pen.
Quite recently, due to all the conundrum, media hysteria and non-stop declarations of fake news and the huge outbreak of lies and exposure of this and that scandal, involving famous individuals, along with their vehement denials of various allegations before resigning their offices, as well as the numerous past historical lies at present being exposed, by the new internet media forums that abound today, Pinocchio was reawakened from his slumbers.
I began to visualize a world, where this nose job increase due to lying, would become a reality of our times, led by ambitious people determined to nose ahead ….
I first looked to our past history and to our political leaders, working in our time-honoured, dignified, parliamentary institutions, making their weekly speeches to the people and to the truthful media personages, who conscientiously write, each and every word the politicians declared. The lies of this political world seemed ocean like in scale…Lies eternal.
Surely there could only be persons with short stubby truthful noses, in those hallowed halls of legal authority and power?
If Pinocchio were true? Then our politicians, their political controllers and their immediate servants, would have noses so long, that they would have to acquire paid attendants walking in front of them, holding up their extended noses above their heads, to allow them to move freely and keep the stench of their snotty sickness away from human sensitivities.
I imagined rows and rows of serious looking, hugely long nosed men and women, attending international conferences, in prestigious capital cities like Washington, London, Rome, Paris and the Hague, espousing their important views on this and that subject, including some blatant propagandistic untruths and promises they know cannot be delivered.
The best liars, needing motorised handlers, as their outstretched noses can be supported and moved around more easily, as they receive the applause of the shorter length noses of the cheering populations, who accept and generally believe in them and their governance, being led by the collective nose.
Governments and the press would first create then establish, a deception of the people by the use of misinformation, alleging, with the support of all the international medical associations that the increase of nose growing, was entirely due to a new vicious virus from the East named as Nositus Extendum.
Avoiding the fact, that this nose outbreak of Nositus Extendum, had simply to do with lying and was easily curable by intense doses of the truth, by those afflicted by this false virus narrative.
International truth whistle-blowers with their short stubby noses, dumping huge amounts of truthful data via the internet, would be hunted down, arrested and put on public trial, accused of lying and deceiving the people.
The Police with their generally shorter noses, could now easily capture criminals, simply by asking the right questions, as if they lied, it would be visible immediately, saving so much time, effort, cost and manpower.
The established churches and various religious creeds and denominations, would also have some embarrassing problems, containing and hiding their nose extensions, as their scrupulous, undeviating versions of historical facts, are being placed in dispute as to their authenticity by learned scientific scholars, who I discovered, have shorter noses. I wonder why?
I was taught that God created us in his likeness and was the illumination of Truth. So I concluded he must have a small nose. But his arch rival, Lucifer the fallen angel, due to his myriad of lies and deceptions, must have a gigantic nose, wider and longer than any motorway known to man and big enough to cruise along to eternity. Some religious souls actually accusing Lucifer of creating the Nositus Extendum virus, to once again deceive the world by pushing his unwelcome nose into the affairs of mankind.
Medical establishments, would have serious problems with their doctors and nurses if they fail tell their patient’s, unpalatable truth about their conditions, as their noses would increase rapidly and due to Nositus Extendum, hospitals would be overwhelmed by people demanding operations to try and reduce nose sizes permanently.
Hospitals and clinics with facial health practitioners, would boom financially from desperate people demanding nose jobs, to reduce their size to something manageable and permanent, whilst the pharmaceutical companies, are busily engaged inventing new types of medical applications and pills, to combat Nositus Extendum the nose phenomena.
International financial institutions such as banks and stock exchanges, would ….performing their commercial transactions and money operations, on the computer screens as the false numbers being sent and received, would cause almighty anger and confusion, as the extended noses would be inadvertently hitting the wrong digits, causing mayhem in the markets.
The military’s of the world would be unable to operate efficiently, as with such long noses how could the tank crews, manage their killing machines with long noses and the infantry would need their noses strapped to their rifles so they can be fired. The snipers would be clearly ineffective. Perhaps only by the use of drones could they perform their national duties and earn their pay.
One could watch, enjoy and laugh at slick TV interviews, where both interviewer and interviewed, rest their differing nose sizes, on specially designed desks, that can be adjusted to the individual’s size and shape…
I recently watched the fascinating interview, with the charming Baron de Nosebury, who clearly considered himself a nose above everyone else.
I had quite a chuckle, watching him having difficulty sipping from his glass of water as his extensive nose, got in the way and could not stop sneezing, as he tried to deliver his exaggerations and falsehoods, to his TV audience.
Lovers, proclaiming their love to their amours, would have to be completely sincere with their partners, as any variation and expanding movements of the nose, could lead to an emotionally negative response and possibly a breakup of the relationship, especially after being asked “how was it for you darling?’ and told “Ooooh yes it was wonderful.” OUCH!
However, some more intrepid lovers could go to any lengths, to turn this increased nose size, into a functional attraction and sexual addition to their loving repertoire.
It would become a world devoid of any racial, cultural conflict, but only resentments and jealousies as regards nose sizes, as in this case, bigger would not be better.
I suddenly shook my head vigorously and came out of my fanciful reverie. I touched my nose to check its size …Thank god it was only a dream, as my nose was normal, but strangely a bit warmer than normal and a little itchy I felt…I need a mirror… better check?
Will our present world, nose dive into oblivion? Can the truth in its purity, save us from this fate? Is a world of falsehoods, deceptions, downright lies and a plethora of fake news, permanently survivable?
Do we as a species, need to reflect once again on the Pinocchio Fable?
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Copywrite: Dario Poli December 2017
