Just what is and isn't lying? There's no debate that lying is wrong, but in the world it gets a bit foggy to determine that what is presented to give a wrong impression is always wrong, sometimes alright, maybe even a virtue. Which of these cases is a lie, hypocrisy, neither, or a positive presentation? These are not in a poll function because they are hard to describe in just a few words.
1) A man is 10 minutes late for work because he hit the snooze button twice, and then he couldn't drive as fast as he wanted in rush hour traffic and he sees a stalled car in the opposite lane from which he is going. He walks in to see his boss with a scowl, and says, "Sorry-- lots of traffic and a stalled car were on the highway."
2) [I know it's an oft-repeated situation] A man's wife puts on her new dress and asks him if she looks fat in it. He really thinks she does look "plump" in it because she looks plump no matter what she wears. He says, "Honey, it fits you well and you look wonderful." But she presses the question of fat, so he says, "Fat?-- no, you look the same as in anything else."
3) A theft of some dynamite has led to a neo-nazi, who admits his gang is going to blow up a public building. Police officers question him all night, but he won't disclose the location. After dawn, he starts asking what time it is, and the officers deduce he may be asking because of the time of the bombing. He starts asking if it is 8 yet, and though it is before 8 they tell him it is 10 after, and then he admits they are bombing a particular elementary school because it is to be integrated beginning that day. The police arrange to evacuate the school and the bomb squad does a successful search for the bomb before it detonates. This is from a Dragnet episode and it's not a question of whether the police lied, but whether this is a case in which lying is justified.
1) A man is 10 minutes late for work because he hit the snooze button twice, and then he couldn't drive as fast as he wanted in rush hour traffic and he sees a stalled car in the opposite lane from which he is going. He walks in to see his boss with a scowl, and says, "Sorry-- lots of traffic and a stalled car were on the highway."
2) [I know it's an oft-repeated situation] A man's wife puts on her new dress and asks him if she looks fat in it. He really thinks she does look "plump" in it because she looks plump no matter what she wears. He says, "Honey, it fits you well and you look wonderful." But she presses the question of fat, so he says, "Fat?-- no, you look the same as in anything else."
3) A theft of some dynamite has led to a neo-nazi, who admits his gang is going to blow up a public building. Police officers question him all night, but he won't disclose the location. After dawn, he starts asking what time it is, and the officers deduce he may be asking because of the time of the bombing. He starts asking if it is 8 yet, and though it is before 8 they tell him it is 10 after, and then he admits they are bombing a particular elementary school because it is to be integrated beginning that day. The police arrange to evacuate the school and the bomb squad does a successful search for the bomb before it detonates. This is from a Dragnet episode and it's not a question of whether the police lied, but whether this is a case in which lying is justified.
