Honesty

When you think about it, it's amazing how much we all lie to each other. Of course most of it has no particular malice attached but is what we call a "white lie", i.e. telling the mother of a baby that it's beautiful when we don't think it really is or telling someone that "it'll all be fine" when you're pretty sure it won't. The problem with "white lies" is that as we have evolved as a social species to become expert at telling them (as most humans are) it leads us to stronger forms of lying, for example exaggerating our abilities, the cheque is in the post, the traffic was awful etc.. Some people become habitual liars, the habit is so common in many that they don't even realise they're doing it, I suspect quite a lot of politicians and CEO's become like this. Then the problem is that the lies affect people's lives, sometimes for the worse the whole behaviour is one huge slippery slope.

It's an interesting thought experiment to ask yourself the question, could I live my life without telling lies? Try it for a day, it's not easy, most of our working lives and relationships are saturated with untruths, from the moment we wake to the moment we close our eyes. In the work environment some like to call it "politics" and at home "harmony" but even a superficial analysis reveals an underpinning of lies. I read a good book last year whose premise was basically this, i.e. what effect does lying have on our lives and could we live without them? It's by author and speaker Sam Harris and is called simply Lying, a recommended (short) read (only 100 pages, honestly!)