The art and ethics of lying - Part II

My posting on “The art and ethics of lying” evoked quite a few responses; some as comments in the blog and some as emails. The two comments given below are thought provoking.

“Thought the rule was not ‘Don’t lie’ but ‘Don’t get caught?’ (by others or by self-guilt) Ethics is an essential compass - a needle towards north, but - but true north is slightly different on Earth?” Sajan

“I think you carry the thread too far. Saying "I bluffed" does not mean that I will do the things that you cite later in the paragraph. When I am talking with you on a contract, do not my morals require me to be responsible, (loyal, even) to the party I represent? So I say "If you do not accept my final offer, we will walk away". I might e bluffing, and this is a lie; but do I own no debt to my colleagues to get them the best deal from you? This need not be a slippery slope (Once we allow in western music, we will end up with...).” Sanjeev Gupta (ghane)

I did not mean that it is always possible to live by the commandment “Thou shall not Lie.” There could be occasions when lying is fair and even necessary. Let us take an extreme example to make a point. Consider that you are standing at a junction and a person comes running totally scared and he runs along the right fork at the junction. After few minutes you see a thug coming running with a gun and he asks you which way the first person went. You may prefer to lie to save a life. There may be less dramatic reasons where lying is the right thing to do.

As Machiavelli argues in ‘The Prince’ “A man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not so good. Hence it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain his position to learn how not to be good and to use this knowledge or not according to necessity”. A desi corollary is “the Good may often bear the fruit of the Bad”

Then there is the question of business ethics that Sanjeev has raised. Business in that sense is like poker. It requires strategies and posture that could be termed as lies in the normal sense. But that is how poker and business are played. But poker and business have their own set of rules. So in this case being good is about playing as per the rules of the game.

Game theorists will point out that reciprocal altruism, (generous tit-for-tat) which while showing a friendly face to the world will not want us to be exploited, is the most sensible strategy for survival.

But what is more reprehensible is when you become the follower of Shakuni and take pride in the rigged dice game where the balance between rational self interest and selfishness tilts as per convenience. It is then that the lies get to be amoral.

As Laurie Calhoun noted in his article The Problem of “Dirty Hands” and Corrupt Leadership “In thinking about this issue, it is important to distinguish self-serving opportunists from those who suffer corruption through their sincere efforts to govern well. Self-serving opportunists often rationalize their dubious measures to themselves through self-deceptive references to ‘the good of the whole,’ claiming that group loyalty demands moral sacrifice or that ‘the end justifies the means.’”

Such rationalisation could become a slippery slope. Especially if we start to justify in relative terms, drawing examples of errors and omissions that we see around particularly that of people who are held in high esteem. In this world of seven billion human beings, who by design are not perfect, there would be statistically significant sample for aberrant behaviours from all walks of life.

That is the message that comes from the story of Yudhishtira’s chariot settling down to the ground when he lies. It reminds us that while we may have a justification of an ‘extenuating circumstance” a deceit is still a deceit.

So while it may not be humanly possible or even unnecessary to strive for absolute truth and justice, it could still an ideal, a ‘guiding star’ (concepts like ‘six sigma’ and ‘ethics in business’ are examples of attempts to represent absolute ideals which many may never reach) so that when we are faced with moral conflicts we could attempt not to justify our selfish acts in relation to the ‘immorality and injustice we see around’.

“We are all in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars” Oscar Wilde