All is fair in lies and ethics.....

I've often wondered how many lies happen in everyday life. Between politics, advertising and plain human nature, its inevitable that it will happen. The questions is, can a lie be good? Of course there are those lies that desperately need to be said. How much the shoes really cost, your weight on your drivers licence, bad dates. These types of lies are sort of free bees.

But when do those little free bees turn dangerous. Have we been programed to lie? Certain businesses make a living on lies and/or stretching the truth. Lawyers, journalists, PR professionals. Should the policy be what they don't know won't hurt them or should we as a society be obligated to always tell the truth.

For me, in all aspects of my professional and personal life I believe that there is a time and a place for a lie. It is a fine line between what is ethical in lies but if done correctly--meaning no one gets hurt from that lie--then I don't see the problem. Maybe this is why I have chosen the PR profession. The CSI article says "sadly, PR is considered to be Among The Lying Professions" and since we have the opportunity to change that, we should.

I tend to disagree. Its sad but true, lies help make the world go round. I'm not suggesting we throw ethics completely out the door but it does help in some instances to blur the truth a bit. For panic sake, for emotional sake, or maybe we just need a little bit more time to work something out, lies can help facilitate our needs.

Do I want to be lied to? Not really, but do we even have a choice. As the John Mayer songs says "when they own the information, they can bend it all they want." He is right, isn't he. Everyone knows lies happen, its just a matter of choosing which to believe. The reasons for lies needs to be based on the greater good of a product, service or society. Its on thing to believe a lie it another to not know the difference between the two. Its not always your job to be honest but safety and responsibility should be.