Lying Doesn’t Help

In recent decades there has been a steady increase of cases where there have been exposes of corrupt politicians and leaders in our country. There have been a countless number of scandals, which have affected the way we trust those around us. It seems as if many people do not place honesty and integrity high up on their list of personal values. These two values used to be at the top of pre-independence settlers lists, now they have been thrown on the backburner, being brought up only when someone fails to abide by them. Honesty and Integrity are not considered to be important currently because people are to busy looking out for themselves; it is much easier to just lie, and the people who are being lied to do not care as much as they would have in previous decades.

Honesty and Integrity have not been as important as they used to be because people are too busy looking out for themselves. In the business world where it is up to the employee to make the big sale, sometimes it can be so hard to admit to wrongdoing or to be completely honest, but this mindset has to change. If one was to turn on the television and see the shows that are currently being viewed by worldwide audiences it is no wonder honesty and integrity are not seen as important. Many shows are geared toward people purposely lying to each other in order to get ahead in what they are doing. Take the show Survivor for example, CBS has put contestants on and basically forced them to fight and lie to get the upper hand through weeks of being in the wilderness in order to win a million dollars. The world revolves around money and the more wealthy one is, the stronger the possibility is that this person is a better liar. Lying creates an opportunity to make more money and make the bigger sale. While talking to a client, a salesperson might tell them the truth that their product is not as well made as their competing company's. Or, the businessman can tell their client that their product is the best on the market and that it does not compare to anything else out there. Lying brings greater profit and this makes people want to lie more and more. If there's money involved, most would lie for his/her own good.

Another reason why honesty has become a value of the past is because people tend to feel that lying is just easier than telling the truth. Adolescents are learning that if you want to be able to avoid getting in trouble, just tell a good lie. Telling lies over and over again creates a situation where people sometimes don't even realize when they are lying. They will lie about something that is completely pointless to lie about such as a parent asking their child if they did their homework already and the child saying yes even though he/she had not even started. These situations accomplish nothing but create more stress and drama when the parent finds out the truth. Then there are the lies that cover up something that a person had done wrong. Take the president of the United States during the 1990's as an example of this. President Clinton had an affair and chose to lie to the entire country and say that he did not. The former president is quoted as saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" (A Chronology). If he just came out and told the truth people at least would not have thought of him as a liar. He was almost impeached because he lied, when that situation could have been