Ends and Means

[andrewducker]

I occasionally think about deceit and how worthwhile it is. It's one of those things I love in roleplaying games (hence my Scorpion Courtier in Legend of the 5 Rings), but avoid thoroughly in real life.

Experience has taught me that secrets cannot be kept by multiple people, the truth will come out and no matter how good your intentions were in lying to them, no matter how positive the outcome, people will hate you for not telling them the truth.

Can anyone think of situations where lies did, in fact work out for the best in the long run? (excepting things like counter-intelligence against enemy nations).

Comments

[thepaintedone.livejournal.com]

The classic example is the Chancellor when he de-valued the pound. That is, I beleive, one of the only examples of when a politician is allowed to lie to the house of commons, as to tell the truth would damage the economy. He has to hold the line right up until the formal announcement that the de-valuing will take place.

In general I prefer truth and honesty, but there are plenty of examples where telling someone a fib or being economical with the truth, simply keeps them from feel distress to no good effect. If telling someone the truth cannot in any way help them deal with an issue or prevent whatever it is, but will cause them distress, why upset them?

Of course this question is entirely dependant on the nature of the issue and the person. Some people can deal with bad issues, others fall appart. Whats good for one person and situation will be bad for someone else. Having the wisdom to tell the difference is quite a trick though.

[kpollock.livejournal.com]

Not from me, I agree with you (other than replies to things like "do I look fat?" and "will it definitely be finished by Friday?" obviously). But I'm bad at lying. It's also easier to be truthful i.e. not having to remember what you have told to whom.

Some people thrive on intrigue though. In a lot of cases people know anyway

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I only tell significant lies to people I do not respect and only when it is useful to me. In general, this means that I mostly lie to my parents. I don't know how useful they have been (I suspect very) but while I have been caught in a few, I have maintained a rather impressive tapestry of lies over several decades with them.

According to what they believe:

I make significantly more money than I actually do, am not pagan, have never had a handfasting with imester, etc...

As for counter-intelligence, I talked to a friend who recently did a great deal of reading about Cold War spying and he largely came to the conclusion that the net benefit of all of the spying by all sides was nothing. By and large, it seemed that the various secrets that were revealed would have gotten out in a month or two anyway. His claim was that the entire endeavor was nothing more than a game played by people who assumed that it would be useful and who enjoyed doing it. This accords well with your idea that large-scale lying is largely useless.