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Tue 14 Jul, 2009 11:31 pm
Basically, if you could make it so that from tom morning onwards nobody could lie about anything, would you do it?
Please think it through and say why or why not.
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IMO, without lies, 90% of all the bad things in the world would go away with time. There would still be accidents and poverty and drug addiction and such but that's really about it.
I would definately rather live in such a world.
Yes you would have to adjust, and it would suck for everyone initially.
But eventually, I think the world would be a lot better for most people.
Even if you have an incurable STD, you would find someone else with the same incurable STD, and they'll have had just as much trouble getting with anyone that doesn't have it as well, so of course they would get it on with you. Yes it would make it harder for you to have casual sex or get high.
It would make it infinately easier to find out the people with bad motives (nazis, criminals, terrorists, dictators, hypocrites). There would no more wrongful imprisonment. Crime of all sorts would very rapidly go away, as would I believe religion.
@Centroles,
Just because you couldn't lie doesn't mean that you have to tell the truth in a nasty way that would piss the other person off.
But yes, people would get their feelings hurt though.
People would find out if others think they're overweight, or unattractive, or smell odd.
But it's better to find out about it and be motivated to change it (exercise, plastic surgery, showering regularly), then have everyone be thinking it but not tell them.
I think it would be worth it in the end.
@Centroles,
Quote:It would make it infinately easier to find out the people with bad motives (nazis, criminals, terrorists, dictators, hypocrites). There would no more wrongful imprisonment. Crime of all sorts would very rapidly go away, as would I believe religion.
I don't see how getting rid of lying gets rid of crime. Sure, people's motives would be more transparent, but it takes more than a motive to create a crime: it takes an action too. Just because I can't lie about my intentions to mug you doesn't mean I can't mug you.
(That said, my answer to your question is yes.)
@Centroles,
The problem with this question is that "truth" is often a matter of opinion or the result of negotiation within particular contexts. And being "economical with the truth" can be socially beneficial, for example when physician disguises a bad prognosis. As for religion, believers often lay claim to "Truth" with a capital "T" and they see their very existence as "confirming it". Theists do not "hold beliefs" the
are those "beliefs".
So the answer to the question is that the proposed world of "no lies" would not be the world of humanity as we know it. It assumes the naive realism of "objective facts" when in essence all facts are social constructions. (Latin
facere - to make or construct)
The question is likely undoable, since I believe many people's egos may not be able to handle the truth when they ask someone a question. Conversation, I believe, survives on little white lies.
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