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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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