tell the Truth or Lie?

To tell the truth means truthful; to lie means dishonest. This idea was implanted to us all since we were a kid. Honesty has been kept at a pedestal so high above all that to lie seems to be such an act that is intolerable and unethical. However, as we grow older we start to understand how our world actually works. More often than not, many of us trace carefully around the edges of to lie or not to lie. Occasionally we keep a toe out of line and cross the border just to make things feel right.

Lies are all around us. One can not deny the fact that lying is indispensable under various circumstances. Just as Bergen Evans said “lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.” No man is an island. We are on constant contact with the people around us and therefore much caution must be applied when we talk so as to maintain harmonious relationships. Friendship for instance, builds through time and some are really strong but there are times when it can be quite fragile and breaks easily. Sometimes, it is being too truthful that caused well-maintained friendships to break into pieces.

While honesty is certainly the best policy, the truth is, in our day-to-day encounters, it is not all the time socially acceptable to be completely honest. Some people may disagree on this but it is hard not to lie especially to the people we cared for the most. We usually lied on the ground of afraid of losing them if we were to tell them the whole truth. Even to the closest people like our family members, we will never be entirely truthful if we know that the truth will likely to cause them pain and misery. Not all people really want to hear the truth. Who wants a rough life that is full of truths? At times, we just hope that people will tell us white lies to make us feel better and to make our life more tolerable.

at times, we can hardly live a life that is free of lies. Yet, we have to know how to balance between truth and lies with the practicalities of the situation because sometimes men have to lie, in order to survive in this world.

p/s: this is part of an written assignment of mine.