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RSS FeedHonesty is the best policy
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| Agree | 87% | 2104 votes | Total: 2422 votes | |
| Disagree | 13% | 318 votes |
Agree
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Add to FavoritesImagine sitting in a class. You, along with everyone else, are taking a test. You look over at your neighbor's test and see the answer that you are missing. Unfortunately for you, the teacher saw you and she takes your test and puts a big F on the top of the paper. Now imagine that you are taking the same test online. You are missing one answer, and although the test is closed-book, you know that the answer is at your fingertips. You grab for the book, find the answer, and submit the test. No one knows except for you that you have cheated. You get an A on the test and your grade in the class rises. What is the difference between the two situations? The only difference is the grade that you receive. In both cases you have cheated. You have compromised your integrity for a measly letter on a report card. In both cases you didn't know the answer, and you were dishonest in order to get it. In one situation you got caught, and in the other you didn't. However, in both cases you have been dishonest with yourself and others.
Being honest is not just telling the truth when we have been caught. Being honest is a lifestyle. Every decision we make, every word that we speak, reflects the kind of person that we are on the inside. One of the easiest things to do in life is to justify our dishonesty. Below are two common excuses that people make for their lack of integrity.
1. I'm Not Hurting Anyone But Myself
This is one of the worst justifications possible. First, it is very unlikely that we affect only ourselves when we decide to lie or cheat. It affects our families, present and future, because it forms a pattern. If we are willing to tell small lies to get ahead, that will lead to telling bigger lies later on and hurting people who we care about. Second, why would we want to hurt ourselves? Depression is not a good feeling. When we make a habit of being dishonest we get ourselves in trouble, and it's true, we do hurt ourselves. When people see that we are hurt, or sad, it affects them and it could lead to disastrous consequences.
2. Just This Once
It's like Lays potato chips, one just isn't enough. When we tell a small lie, it sets us up to tell other lies. For example, imagine that a teenager sneaks out of his house. He comes home and gets back in bed before his parents even know. The next day his parents hear from his friend's parents that they were at a huge party. Now imagine that this teenager simply tells his parents that it's not true. That's lie number one. Now imagine that they ask him how he can explain the pictures of him at a party. He explains it away saying it was a different party. There's lie number two. Then when his little sister tells her parents that she saw him sneak into his room at three in the morning, he has to tell his parents that he was just getting a drink of water or something like that. As we can see, one lie leads to a chain of lies. And as we spin that web of lies it gets harder to get out of it. We begin to forget what we told one person, and eventually we are so caught in that web that we can't escape it. If we are honest from the beginning we don't have to worry about what we told one person and what we told someone else. Our story will be consistent and there will be no need to get caught with our foot in the mouth.
We can infer from these examples that honesty truly is the best policy. If we cannot be honest with ourselves, then we will never be able to be honest with others. I would be willing to bet that the majority of criminals at one point or another chose to compromise their integrity in order to gratify their personal pride. No one is perfect, we all have fibbed at one point in our lives. We all must strive to improve in this aspect. We have to start by being honest with ourselves; by choosing personal integrity over the praise of our peers, and by choosing veracity over prevarication.
Learn more about this author, Daniel Barker.
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Disagree
Honesty without a doubt is not the best policy in life. In fact an honest comment could lead to a problem in many situations. Fact of the matter is life is made much harder by being honest at all times. While in a perfect world 100% honesty would be a great idea, the fact remains that we do not live in such a utopia. We live in a world based on lies and corruption, mistruths and misinformation. To be an honest person in today's world just isn't worth it.
Lying however is also not a great way to live your life either. The true best policy is to look out for oneself. If you were to be honest your entire life, you would likely be thought of as a fool due to your inability to maintain any sort of job, relationship and social life. Your honesty would anger those around you as most times people don't want to hear the truth; they are looking to hear what they want to hear.
On the flip side one cannot go through life only lying. Let's face it, lying is hard. It starts as a small little white lie but when the truth comes close to such a lie it must be expanded on. Much like a snowball rolling down a hill, it can quickly get out of control. Due to this fact one must take great caution when starting a lie. One must think about the different directions the lie could head. One must also think about the amount of people who can disprove such a lie. In the end, it's really hard to maintain a good and proper lie.
So what is the best policy? I would venture to say that a nice mixture of healthy honesty with the insurance coverage of some good lying will make life in general much easier on all. If you can stand back and look at a situation and know that your honest opinion would warrant less negative response then by all means go with a nice honest approach. However let's say you are at your in laws for dinner and your mother in law has created her favourite meal, meat burnt beyond recognition, then lie and inform her of how swell it tastes even as the charred mass cuts your mouth like razor blades.
What lying comes down to is asking yourself, will I be better off by not telling the truth. On the most part your answers will be yes. Why would majority be yes you ask? Well the simple fact that your answer will depend on many factors. Factors such as the feelings of other, how your answer will affect your standing in a group, and overall appeal effect what you will choose to say. While it is dishonest one must eventually give way to lying and it won't necessarily hold you back if done properly.
Imagine a world without lies; it's just not very interesting. There is no real drama and nothing will really motivate you due to the fact that you will know exactly how the world around you is going. Lies are necessary and because of this I support liars. However there must be SOME truth in all lies.
Learn more about this author, Dominic Shaw.
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