lying being accepted in society is the ethical slippery slope so many have warned about. If you do not teach it as being unacceptable and punishable, then be disciplined enough to enforce it, it will get worse and worse until the limit is reached and you WILL enforce standards on lying.
We have progressed to a point in this nation's history where criminals and traitors are allowed to go free because we as a society do not have the moral rectitude and outrage capable of punishing someone appropriately for doing horrible things. We've forgotten that without the switch (meaning painful punishment), the child quickly runs amok and grows up to be the sociopath they were permitted to be as a youth.
"It's all good", has been an expression that has forgiven uncountable acts of moral depravity and evil. As a society, we need to return to a time that a lying politician is drummed out of government forever. A businessman who cheats the public be punished in accordance to the scale of his crime. A sports hero be stripped of his position and lauds (Michael Vick was a good start).
A society that forgives everything for nothing will soon fall into chaos and be conquered by those who have not forgotten what the backbone of a strong society is: Discipline of clear moral codes and laws. This is something we have not done well as a nation since the 1950's and the pendulum is going to start swinging back the other way, as we've gone too far. We've thrown away our American Society since then... whittling it away with compassion for multi-culturalism which is nothing more than societal chaos. No nation can survive this for long. A dominant culture will win out and crush all the others. That is the way of things for all of human history.
Condemnation, shame, shunning, a certain demand for uniformity of discipline... all these things are unpleasant tools of a society with a strong ethical core. Without them, there is no threat to those who choose to disregard society's norms. Do we need to go back as far as we used to be say in Colonial times? No... There's a balance point somewhere in between we can find. But if this problem isn't addressed in a rational manner, it will be forced by an irrational manner and go too far.
Societies and cultures swing back and forth on this pendulum. You can see it throughout history in every nation that has lasted more than a couple centuries. We've come to the end of a VERY liberal and permissive time. The next few generations, suffering under the pains of excessive license will be swinging back the other way. The question is one of speed and scope. The more resistance to moving back to the more placid middle needs to lessen lest we all suffer more.
Interesting perspective.
I say that lying hasn't become any more or less prevalent, it's just that it's much easier to check up and call people out. It was bad form for individuals to record conversations and then publish the tapes, assuming they would make it past the editorial directors of the media. Now we have youtube and the blogosphere. We also have an increased text based interaction, where it's not possible to lie and completely get away with it.
In a strange way, this forces more honesty. Tomorrow's politicians are cognizant of what they say in email, on message boards, and on facebook. The days of paying off the bartender to forget a college incident are over.
Warts and all, we're really going to know who is sitting in the big chairs. Of course, then shit's going to hit the fan when we realize that we don't want antiseptic citizens who have never experienced life having that much power over us. But that is a problem our kids will have to solve.
You're talking about a tool to help foster honesty. In this sort of situation, you're right, it has the potential to do this, AND create better liars. We will adapt to hide our sins.
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking a fundamental character flaw that lying is no big deal. A societal issue which nations turn upon and societies grow or die.
Parents do not believe lying is a big deal or that it's cute or funny as kids, so when they get older, they think it still is. Now what if that young child lied to their parents face, and was caught and immediately punished and harshly in a meaningful way to that kid. And was every time they were caught lying. I'd hazard to say that it would tun them into very honest people.
That is where the character flaw is ingrained. Lying is not punished. I work with kids. When they lie to me, and I catch them on it, I expose them and put them on report. There are consequences for when they lie and know it. There are consequences when they are insubordinate too. Within a few months, of me busting their chops for misbehavior and lecturing them on what character is, they quickly become the best group of kids you can imagine. Because they know there is value in good character and punishment for bad.
This country hasn't laid down the law on our children for 30 years in most cases. Until that happens again, we will never get back to a moral nation. Now you may say that's harsh or mean or strict, and damn right it is. We've tried soft and forgiving and enabling and it got us into this mess with our children, and that's where this all starts.
In a way, thank GOD we're going to be going through some very harsh economic times. We can't afford the luxury of lying to ourselves and supporting bullshit. Our parents and grandparents who grew up with the ethics of the 'me' generation and passed them on to us would be shocked to discover their ethical lessons are going to die with out generations as we do not pass them on to our children for we have seen what an abysmal failure moral relativism, 'if it feels good, it is good' and "It's all good" have wrought in our society.
9/11 was a hard stop to the pendulum. stopped the cultural swing to the liberal short of it's final goal. Gravity is pulling it back down and it will swing the other way. It's about a roughly 75 year cycle when you look at it. From the 1790's to the 1860's. From the 1860's to the 1930's. From the 1930's to present. Liberal, conservative liberal... and now back to conservative. Each period brings it's improvements and curses. But sorry now, time says the epoch has ended, and time to move on the other way. Let's just hope it keeps improving.
