To Lie or Not to Lie

Every time you lie, deceive, or cheat, you lose a little bit of your soul – Poi Dog Pondering, I’ve Got My Body

I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie. … there is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies – Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Pain forces even the innocent to lie – Publilius Syrus, Sententiae, no. 171

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies – Winston Churchill

By telling a lie to save a life, one is not touched by sin – The Mahabharata

... the greatest violation of man's duty to himself ... is the opposite of veracity, lying. ... To be truthful (honest) in all declarations, therefore, is a sacred and absolutely commanding decree of reason, limited by no expediency – Immanuel Kant

All quotations are taken from Evelyn Sullivan, The Concise Book of Lying.

Lately, I have been pondering about the extent of when honesty would be the best policy. I resigned from my job of 4.5 years a week before last because I couldn’t honestly believe that the new venture the company is attempting would work given the presence of some conditions. My resignation, although expected, was prompted by an ultimatum that those who did not want to be involved in this new venture should resign by the end of the week. Many of my ex-coworkers share similar views with me, but when being confronted by our (my ex) boss, they blatantly declared their supports, and later told me that they have not told her the truth*. I ended up being the only one who resigned.

The point of this post is not to debate over the morale of right or wrong, but rather is to discuss the properness of telling the truth or, when (is it ever?) appropriate, lies. Now some of you may start silently protesting ‘but I would never lie’. However, Sullivan says, let’s face it:

… the number of people who have never once in their lives told a lie is nil, and even those of use furnished with so spectacularly bad a memory, or such hyperactive faculties of repression, that they do not recall any instance in which they themselves have lied will not deny that on occasion others have lied to them (Sullivan, 2001: xi).

Despite the fact that I couldn’t have stayed with my ex-company based on principles, having not secured any job offer prior to my resignation is not necessarily the best decision either (albeit the fact that I still have a consulting work until March as a cushion), for my plan to go back to school this August makes me unemployable by most companies’ standards: Who would employ, or rather invest in, a person who they know would leave in a couple of months’ time?

From my own experience in trying to find this other job in the past couple of months, I could affirmatively answer: nobody. And through the process, I have been told by many (including my own mother!) that I shouldn’t have been so fortright about my situation if the company doesn’t inquire about my future plan. So the question leads to a logical next: What if they don’t know that I would most likely leave? Would they give a more fair consideration over a job offer?

I tried this other approach with a company, knowing all along that I would tell the truth only after I have gone through the whole selection process and made the pass. And I did. Last week I was offered a very enticing position, and the company wanted a one-year contract. So I told them about the contingency of my plan to go back to school – which resulted in the company wanting to think things over, a fair move I feel comfortable with but anxious about at the same time.

So, here I am, still jobless, and questioning the whole notion of truth and lies.

Do you think honesty is the best policy? Why or why not?
When would you lie? Are there any circumstances that would justify a lie? What are they?

ADDED

This seems to perfectly exemplify what Steven Pinker, in How the Mind Works (1997) defines as behavior:

Behavior is the outcome of an internal struggle among many mental modules, and it is played out on the chessboard of opportunities and constraints defined by other people's behavior (Pinker, 1997: 42).