There is a long discussion going on at Linked-In, The economist group about an article on lying in which the demarcation line seems to be drawn by many people that lying is bad, telling the truth good and we always have a choice which to choose. Indeed I now read human beings do not need to lie in order to survive.
This is such a narrow view of what we should term ‘falsehood’ to get rid of pejorative values and the incessant concentration on what one person says to another. The reason for the narrowness of the discussion is the way in which we are condition to make moral judgments, and how we lie to ourselves as to our own estimation of our individual ethical codes.
Lets be straight forward here, human beings could not have survived without lying. To hunt and trap animals you must be able to hide your intentions and you must be able to fool the animal. To win a war you must be able to set ambushes and out-think the enemy and part of that is to mislead the enemy. To do business you must often hide your intentions and always hide the true cost of goods to yourself so you can make a profit without asking the buyer if they think the profit margin is fair.
Our history is one of lying ‘for a cause’. Humanity is full to bursting with such causes.