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Honesty is not the best policy because honesty is not a policy at all. It is a quality, a state of truthfulness. It is not a matter of being honest at all times, or some of the time, or not at all. Honesty is to be an honorable person.

Do you believe you are lying when you tell your friend her lasagna is wonderful when it is merely mediocre? Do you describe yourself as a dishonest person when you call in sick to work when you are, in reality, quite well? Are you being deceitful when you tell your child Santa Claus is going to leave him lots of presents under the tree?

Originating in the 1300's, the word honesty was associated with honor. The honesty of a person was bound to his honorable behavior. The truth and lies of life were, as they are now, coping mechanisms. Secrets were closely guarded, but all were honor bound to serve king and country. Loyal service was a measure of a man's honesty.

A person who believes that true honor lies not in the quibbling of daily exchange, but rather in the impact of his deeds, the quality of his life and the good he does during that life adheres to a policy that continually evolves to embrace the shifting truths of reality.

Consider the position of a journalist embedded with troops actively engaged in war. The journalist is privy to secret information. Does he reveal this information to the public? Does his journalistic integrity demand he reveal secrets that could, conceivably, cause harm to the troops? Or would true honesty lie in his discretion? Would he not be more true to his self, to his code, were he to honor the lives of those who trust him?

If honesty is the best policy, then our journalist must choose to which version of honesty he is bound.

Honesty is only one element in the policies you or I draft in our lifetimes. Policies are generic, expansive, flexible. Addendums are added, adjustments made. What codes we lived by when we were seventeen would hardly serve us at age forty. The demands of our lives change drastically over time, and the basic tenets of our beliefs are constantly tested, and sometimes renewed.

Honesty is the best policy' is merely a platitude, an idiom designed to express philosophical values attributed to truth and societal interpretations of truth. It is an oversimplified construct designed to direct the masses toward a common understanding of social mores. It is not a directive. If you, or I, must define a policy, then let that policy be to honor the greater good, and be true to ourselves.

Learn more about this author, Shelly Mcrae.
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