From a very young age, we’ve been taught that lying is bad. The worst thing you could do to someone is lying to them.
People get serious punishment for the lies they tell. Sometimes the punishment could be as harsh as death.
Yet, here we are living a life full of lies. What we don’t understand is that we grew up listening and believing in lies.
Our parents lied to us when they made us believe that (spoiler alert) Santa Claus or the tooth fairy is real. Our teachers made us believe that if we don’t get perfect grades, we’ll never make it.
Come to think of it, those lies never really did anything wrong to us. In fact, it shaped us into believing that lying is not a bad thing after all.
Before anything let me clarify that statement.
Lying is definitely a bad thing. Our parents and teachers teaching us not to lie are correct. Be that as it may, lying so something good happens is not a bad thing.
“Little white lies are told by humans all the time. Indeed, lying is often how we get through each day in a happy little bubble. We spend time and energy rationalizing our own behaviors, beliefs and decision-making processes.” – Barry Ritholtz.
Why should people lie?
To make people feel better.
Whether we like it or not we are sometimes responsible for other people’s happiness.
That means we’re even responsible when they’re upset. So, the best thing you could do to make someone happy in a certain situation is a lie.
Lying won’t necessarily make things better. But it sure won’t make things worse. And if you’re lying in order to make things better for someone, god won’t punish you.
Little white lies that’d make your loved ones happy is allowed. For example, saying that your girlfriend isn’t looking fat in the red sweater. Or telling your kid their painting is amazing.
To handle a situation.
Sometimes it is hard to take care of a situation if you’re the type of person that doesn’t believe in lying.
Telling truth and all the truth can sometimes become troublesome. And you won’t be able to handle the situation well.
But if you can handle it with a little bit of white lie, you might as well do that.
Constructive Criticism.
Today, people have become very sensitive about almost anything. Whenever you try to right the wrongs, there is always someone that gets offended over it.
It’s really a sad thing to think of, but it is a harsh reality we have to deal with in everyday life.
So, in order to play it safe, you could always lie and hit them with constructive criticism. It makes you come out as the good guy without being too harsh on others.
To cover up the truth.
There are times when truth just doesn’t work. Being an honest and truthful person might not always work in your favor.
Sometimes even the truest of things need a little bit of fabrication.
Look where speaking the truth landed Ned Stark in Game of Thrones (if you’re not a Game of Thrones fan or you’re just watching it, spoiler alert Ned dies).
To protect ourselves and others.
Sometimes lying could be beneficial for our own lives. It could get us out of some really serious situations that we don’t want to get involved in otherwise.
Telling white lies have actually become a part of our everyday life. And at times it is so important that if we didn’t lie, we could’ve got into some really serious trouble.
Hence, lies can be used to protect yourself or the people you care about from getting into trouble.
Having said all that, we definitely don’t encourage you to lie your way out of anything and everything.
There are certain terms and conditions that make lies okay sometimes. Remember, you should only lie if you have someone’s best interest at heart.
We sure don’t want to hurt the ones we love, do we? So, in order to protect them and ourselves, we should all lie, sometimes i.e.
