What would it be like if we were incapable of lying.

Would it make the world a better place?
Would you like to live in such a world?


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http://westsiders2.deviantart.com/

Ever heard the sentence: Truth hurts the most?
It would be horrible, just imagine your girlfriend saying to you, that you are small

Last edited by Smillo at 1:22 pm, Jun 27 2013

We would talk far less than we do now... and that would be one thing. Not being particularly fond of lying i tend not to talk much. And truth.. i guess it could be pretty demanding to live in a world where people couldn't lie when they don't want to hurt others.. but then again you could just say "i don't want to speak about it" which would be true?

But the other thing is - i recently read Olympos, where it's suggested - what if by figuring out whether we can say something or not could we establish what is true or not? ("afterlife exist/doesn't exist"). Or not lying meaning that we could not say anything about something we don't know - (then both options would be unspekable).

Closet homosexuals would have a hell of a time trying to hide it.

There is a movie called "the invention of lying." It depicts a world were no one could lie except for one person, the protagonist.

Well, it all depends on how this incapability to lie came to be.

If it was something all humans where born with then the concept of lying would not exist and not be known of. It is a place that we would have a hard time to comprehend since society would be so much different. Not to say that it would be peaceful, it would probably be the other way around. More harsh and more forth coming as is the nature of truth. Or perhaps not, who knows right.

If it where a cataclysmic event that suddenly (in our world) would happen, then many of our very beliefs, political ideal and moral determination would fly out the window. The world would undoubtedly be thrown into chaos since the hard truth would be evident in our every interaction. Imagine that every question would have to be answered with the absolute truth. A person could ask you "Do you find 14 year old sexually attractive?", "Are you thinking of cheating on me?", "Do you hate black people?", "If you could, would you kill someone who irritates you?" "Tell me your darkest secret." "Tell me what you have been lying about during the time we have known each other."

See, that would be the world we would find ourselves in. Our morals and ideals would suddenly be exposed as skin deep and society would break apart. Some could probably handle it, but not society as a whole. Wars would start, families break a part, friendships ended etc.

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I figure omission would become the new lie.
By leaving out information you can paint a wrong picture in someone's head just as well or maybe better than a lie. In fact that is how biased journalists operate: They can't afford to straight out lie (usually), so instead they report about studies favourable to their agenda exclusively.
And if you absolutely have to give a certain information you can still be as vague about it as you like.

In conclusion I don't think an inability to lie would make us speak the truth more often but rather more creative in how we avoid it.

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Honestly i think we would just change our way of speaking. if someone asks, what where you doing last night?" you could easily answer " i had a project i needed to work on." a project could be anything from redecorating, to finishing some work for your job, to schoolwork, to planning an assassination. Hell, all you said was you had a project to work on, you never said you actually DID it. the other person would probably just assume you worked on it. One could also easily respond with "i was watching a movie" While you did in fact watch part of a movie for about 5 minutes, and then spent the rest of the night doing something else. If asked "does this dress make me look fat?" one could honestly answer "no it doesnt" that would not be a lie, because truthfully its your eating habitats that make you look fat. If someone asked you what your plans are for tomorrow, you could answer with "i might (insert random activity here)" simply starting with "i might" makes it just a possibility. even if you have less than 1% of doing something, it is still a possibility and thus not a lie.
Also, even if you suck with words, you can always not answer a question. Saying something like "tell me your darkest secret" could be responded with " no" just because you can lie doesn't mean you must answer every question.

Don't think it'd change much in everyday life. It's easy enough to talk around things without outright lying.

It could conceivably make courtrooms much simpler places though: force the defendant into answering very specific yes/no questions and they're not left with much wiggle room.

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"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

that would be a funny world, judge. Did you murder and rape this girl? Defendant: yes, i did.
Life in prison and no answer is = to.

Considering traders, business would be bad. Customers will, just ask simple questions and the companies that can answer will have a good chance. Meaning no 80-90% profit margins.

No real criminals as they will be easy to catch, no one making a lot of money...Indeed, it would be a communist society.

Communists dream embodied, right there.

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I believe in letting people do as they wish, as do I myself. Sometimes, of course, what I wish to do is kill them and they do not wish to die. This gives life interest.

I hate being lied to but i do see the need for the ability to lie.
I quiet enjoy miss leading people and telling people things in order to spare their feelings.

lying can be a necessary evil in the sense that comfort can be found in being misled.

Last edited by westsiders2 at 10:47 pm, Jun 29 2013

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http://westsiders2.deviantart.com/

Holy cow, I'd be honest. it scares me!

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"Everything is okay in the end. If it's not ok, then it's not the end."

"I'm tired of all the nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What else do you want; an adorable pancreas?" - Jean Kerr

When I said 'death' before 'dishonor', I meant alphabetically.

Imagine what would happen if there were no more hypothetical situations.

Nah, lying or not, that doesn't mean that evilness disappear as well.
And living in that kind of world, maybe fun too.
Looking at how the people interact with a few words as an excuse for not lying.

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Is hiding your emotions can be called as lying too? I'm trying my hardest to not to lie. But somehow I have a habit to not showing my true feelings. People often say that I'm hiding something or unsure about me since I rarely reject them...

I myself don't know, because sometimes I really agree with what my friends said. But when I disagree with them, I'll tell them but maybe I'm not good at telling it, so usually I don't reveal everything. Maybe I'm just scared how people will react to my opinions...

When I had a cold fight with my friend, somehow she hinted that I told her 'white lies' rather than the truth.

People would simply get around lying using other tactics in order to deceive. We'll always find a way when we need to give someone else the wrong idea or if there's something we want to hide, and there are many ways aside from using words.

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