Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Wacky Wednesday--Lying Is Good, Especially for Children

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~The best way to discover when others are lying is by knowing how to lie yourself.
~The totally honest are usually woefully ignorant at how common lies occur around them.
~Being able to lie is a very useful, perhaps a necessary skill in today’s society.
~If you don’t practice it a fair amount, especially when you’re young, you won’t have it when you need it.
~We all lie and encourage lying in a ton of social situations: the food is bad, the gift is bad, you just don’t want to go to the party, the dress does make her look fat, the sermon is weak, the singing is off-key etc.
~Lying is very tightly connected to intelligence, both the earliness of them starting and the competency of them doing it. Let’s be honest, dumb kids are terrible liars.
~It’s a universal tendency of kids….and adults.
~You’ll notice that Adam and Eve didn’t get punished for being deceptive toward God but only for eating the fruit.
~If they’re smart, hence good at it, then it’s likely they’ll find times where it works and it will work for them. But if they and everyone else is satisfied, how bad can it be?
~Lying works. Otherwise people are kind of stupid to do it.

~People lie to avoid conflict and confrontation and the appearance of rebellion, which are very useful social lubricants.

Links:
Are kids copying parents when they lie? by NY Magazine
Five lies we all tell at work by CNN

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