I saw this movie a while back, called "The Invention of Lying." Imagine a world where not only people only and always say the truth, but they also can't keep their mouths shut. Imagine the scenario: Beautiful girl meets fat guy. In a regular encounter in today's world, they would be polite, say things like "nice to meet you", etc, even if it wasn't exactly accurate. In the "no lies" world, not only would they not say "nice to meet you", but they would actually say things like "wow, you're beautiful and way out of my league... I'm uncomfortable just looking at you" and she would probably reply with "you're right. You're fat and ugly and I'm wasting my time just talking to you."
I have to admit that I would absolutely hate to live in a world like that. Not because I want to lie. No, I would probably be perfectly happy in a world where nobody lied... but where they knew how to keep their mouths shut whenever they had something inappropriate in their heads.
Being polite is not lying. Being polite is a matter of courtesy and education. Of behaving well in society. And in all honesty, that also includes "white lies." If you meet the most obnoxious person in the world in a job interview, you're almost obligated to say "it's nice to meet you" even if you're thinking they're the last person on the planet you'd actually want to meet. If your best friend just got the worst haircut in history, you always say "it's not that bad" even if it is-- you don't say it's beautiful, cuz that would just be a plain lie, and you don't lie to your friends. But you do try to cheer them up... "it'll grow fast, you won't even notice it..."
Anyway, just hadn't posted anything here in a while, and remembered this movie, which is actually quite interesting, I definitely recommend it!
