When is lying justified?

We are told before we can speak never to lie.  Dishonesty, fabrication, fraudulence, deception, and every synonym of the word is frowned upon.  Courts have us pledge not to do it, religions preach against it, and our parents taught us to avoid it, however virtually everyone lies.


Not only do we all lie, but we lie frequently.  By the time you are reflecting this information .  This is the way of the average American, and the average AHS student.


“I lie all the time,” says junior Nate Kaegi, and he is far from alone.


“I lie to stay out of trouble,” said sophomore Joey Stoll.  “I think it [lying] is extremely common.”  According to the facts, he’s right.  A recent poll of nearly 300 confirms that the average AHS student will lie on average, three to four times every day.  However, these are only the consciously registered significant lies.


We lie numerous other times without even recognizing the fact that we have lied.  This behavior, it is said, exists because of the subconscious desire to benefit yourself or protect others from harmful information.  This type of sub, or semiconscious lying accounts for a large portion of lies we tell every day.


The majority of AHS students agree that these small white lies are not significant, and no problem admitting to them. They also tend to have no moral issue with telling them.


“I don’t have the slightest guilt,” said Stoll.  Nate Kaegi agrees.  When asked whether he has a moral dilemma with lying he responded, “Not at all.”
However, what constitutes a significant lie is still debatable.  Most AHS students believe that small lies created in the interest of avoiding minor trouble or protecting another individual are acceptable.
“I usually just lie if a friend asks me something and I know the truth would be mean,” said sophomore Michelle Kinzer.  She believes lying is acceptable if it is only in the interest of helping someone and does not create any further problems.


Most would agree with Kinzer.  They refrain from lying unless put under a situation such as this and often forget they have lied only minutes later.  The effects of these lies are small, and the moral repercussions of the lie are often unnoticeable.


However, often a lie is far more significant, say for example, with politicians.  Politicians are often cited for lying heavily and in regards to significant information.  More often than not, a lie made by a politician will have dramatic effects, be it positively or negatively, on a large number of people.


Politicians often defend themselves by stating that lying is a necessary evil in their line of work.  The people that they govern often disagree.  Here at AHS the situation is much the same.  When asked whether politicians should be allowed to lie, School Class President Ngan Hoang said,“Yes and no.  It’s kind of like having integrity.  Politicians should be honest to citizens and individuals should be able to trust their government, but little white lies don’t matter.  It’s hard to explain.”


Freshman Will Cameron has a more definitive answer, “Absolutely not.  When a government lies a big mass of people are given wrong information so decisions are made wrong.”


To many at AHS, lying like a politician is a commonality.  Lying for them is just as frequent as telling the truth.


“The only time I don’t lie is when there’s no point in lying.  I just think it’s fun to manipulate people.  I like to be in control of people,” said junior Kate Salpini.
Although she lies extremely frequently, Salpini does not believe this lying has broken any of the trust between her and others.  In fact, she believes the contrary.  “People trust me so much more.  The way I lie makes it seem like I’ve got everything under control.”


Having, “everything under control,” has lead to another ironic result.  Kate does not believe lying has ruined any of her personal or professional relationships; in fact, she believes that lying has improved her friendships.


“If I stopped lying, just completely, I honestly don’t think I would have any friends,” she reflected while chuckling to herself.  Salpini enjoys the irony of her lying where trust is gained through manipulation, and negative actions result in positive ends.


“Lying,” she says, “prepares you for the real world.  “You can’t just tell your boss, ‘oh I didn’t do this,’ you need to find a way around it,” she believes.


 “Like if I didn’t do some work I’ll make up some good stories,” she says.  “I think lying enables you to get things done. You need to lie to get by, but it definitely makes things more complicated.”


Freshman Ndidi Obasi is another of the many AHS students that admits to frequent lying. “Sometimes I’ll do something like mess up or break something, so I come up with a long story to get out of trouble.”


“Another time, I didn’t have a project done so I told the teacher my printer was not  working and she gave me a couple more days to get it done.”


While Obasi admits to frequent lying she does not believe it accomplishes much.  “I do it to get out of trouble, but I usually just end up getting myself into more.”

 
“If I started telling the truth the whole time though, I don’t think it would change that much.  I guess it’s just a bad habit I can’t kick,” she confesses.


While frequent liars are common at AHS, others avoid lying as much as possible.  Senior Emily Ainsworth believes, “It [lying] is never justified.”  “I don’t know,” she pondered, “I’ve just always been taught not to lie.”


Despite her moral choice to avoid it, she does admit to lying on a few occasions, but will “always feel really guilty after,” and believes that lying is, “not necessarily good, but it isn’t really that bad either.  There’s worse things than lying.”


The commonality of lying, at AHS and across the globe is solid fact.  Whether the world would be a better place without lying and deception however, remains a debatable issue.


“Yeah it would probably be a better world without lying because then we could trust each other,” believes Stoll.  Others disagree.


“I don’t think it would be better without lying.  I don’t think people can handle the truth,” says Obasi.


Senior Kevin Won agrees, “We need lying.  Lying makes the world go round.”