Honesty – Right, or Wrong?

Recently I was thinking to myself about right and wrong.

Most of us are told our whole lives what constitutes good and bad behaviour, but in our everyday life how do we actually define those boundaries?

We are told that stealing is wrong, hell, it’s even in the bible, but we have all been in that situation where the sales person puts your items through the till and misses one, 99% of people say nothing, as everyone loves a freebie, but isn’t that stealing?

We are told not to discriminate or laugh about others, but there is not a single person out there who hasn’t laughed at a joke about people of colour, LGBT people, disabled people, blondes, gingers etc. So doesn’t that make us all discriminatory arse-holes?

Although the one that really got me thinking was honesty. Through-out our lives we are told that ‘honesty is the best policy’ and we often say we would love a partner who was honest, but is it the best policy? Do you really want a totally honest partner?

Imagine your friend asks you if she should end things with her douche-bag boyfriend. Your honest answer should be “of course, he’s a total cunt, you can do much better than that prick”, but in actuality you probably say something more like; “you should do what makes you happy”. Obviously we say this to be a supportive friend, but isn’t it a lie by omission? If you said the former, you’d feel better about getting it off your chest, but then if she does break up with him, you’re the friend that made her end her relationship and make her miserable, and if she doesn’t she will always know you think she should have.

The worst honesty of all in some ways, comes from being unfaithful. Granted, you shouldn’t be unfaithful to start with. But if you do cheat on your partner and ‘get away with it’ what good will ever come of telling the truth? If you told your partner, chances are it would break their heart and shatter their trust in you, therefore causing the demise of your relationship. It would leave you, single, sad and lonely. Someone tell me the good in that? The only person that can ever really benefit is yourself, and in my book, that is the very definition of selfishness.

And of course we are told that being selfish is wrong, so ergo, does that make being a liar okay?