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IDEOLOGY AND ETHICS SURVEY SAMPLE ARGUMENTS |
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| 6. |
How should we justify an increased use of deception in high-level business and political affairs? |
| (- 5) An ethical issues-related viewpoint: Everyday life is governed by the use of various forms of intrigue and deception. As examples, white lies are told out of politeness. People hide failures to embellish their resumes. Companies must withhold trade secrets, and advertisers must make their clients look good. Emotionally mature people learn to never disclose any more about themselves than is absolutely necessary. Life is a poker game were real "players" routinely bluff and never tip their hand. In fact, it is a sign of intellectual superiority and worldly sophistication to devise clever intrigues that condition others to perpetually accept ones lies. This is often necessary because many people are immature or have bad instincts and simply cannot be trusted to make good use of the truth. People who fall for lies usually get what they deserve anyway. In order to avoid ruffling too many feathers in a complex society, dissimilation provides a necessary cushion. Real leaders must embrace lying and manipulation as a way of life |
. . . | (+5) An opposing ethical-issues view: In the long run, in order for a complex, interdependent, modern society to advance, it must err on the side of too much openness and honesty. A major problem with telling lies is that they are often hard to retract by the liars. When the public opinion-molding elite can get away with repeated big lies, this can create a very dangerous situation where so many lies start to get built on top of other lies that over time the society becomes seriously decoupled from reality. Then it may become more easily manipulated by malevolent interests and tyrants. Certain vital institutions involving scientific research, parliamentary debate, law enforcement, and a free press require unconditional commitments to honesty, openness, and integrity at all times to remain viable. Beyond a certain point, compromise on honesty does not mean a more sophisticated society, but rather a seriously decadent social order that may even be at war with itself. Because lying involves theft of the truth, and theft is inherently hostile, too much lying means too much war within society. |
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