Is anyone honest anymore?

[$Nanaki$]

This has been bothering me for a long time..are we seeing the fall of honestdy in modern society? Or has the fall already happened and are we dealing with the fallout. The reason I bring this up is because of the immense amount of media attention given to such issues as Watergate, Iran-Contra, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the AWB scandal in Australia.
I mean, can't we even trust people to tell the truth or are we just being jaded in assuming everyone is honest while they are lying their asses off to everyone?

I think it's safe to say that the majority of people believe that politicans are lying sacks of shit--in fact i think it's a politician's job to lie, in order to make you like him so he can either get or stay elected.

If we see this all time, do we believe we can do the same thing and believe it is acceptable? What are we teaching our children in the way of moral values? I just think it's a shame we live in a paranoid society where we cannot trust anyone or anything they say. What are your thoughts on this?

[Vicious]

Originally Posted by $Nanaki$

I mean, can't we even trust people to tell the truth or are we just being jaded in assuming everyone is honest while they are lying their asses off to everyone?

I'll take "We're getting ass-raped by dishonest dumbasses for 600 Alex".

This is a good discussion because it gives a good chance for everyone to peel off the blind-fold and past the grey shade over our sense of reality. Why? Because the common human is nothing more than a typical peasant who panics, whines, and is a complete hypocritical asshole. A perfect example to this is within the fuedal era's of Japan the peasants who worked in rice fields or whatever never really had anyone strong to protect each village. Therefore, people with power would take over their very lives. So the peasants would then resort in a life of fear and worry. And those two things are what drive the common human being. Which also makes them dishonest lieing weaklings that are worse than what they use to be.

So many people are afraid of losing something, some times a rather small value to the object and what not, but they will do ANYTHING to survive. Basically it is a world built on power of money. That and any moron can pull a trigger. Most people themselves take their freedom for granted and just want to live the way they want. It's a life style. A life style of ignorance.

Course politicians are going to lie, a lot of people lie to get what they want. It's sort of the "way of the world" one might say. You make a lie and cover it up to keep your position in life. That is what most people believe. Then again there are jobs you really hate, but it pays good so you don't want to mess up. Though anyway, you have pointed out the one thing that destroys each new generation, morality. A parent teaching their son or daughter to behave mannerly and formal is much different from a parent teaching a child logic. It's very rare also. We have so many stereotypes because of this also. Children basically grow up learning what they see and hear, especially the media.

They were right about one thing though, the children ARE our future. They create the next world's era and without a sense of morality they are dangerous as well.

It's like the government saying the Roswell incident was real and they did find alien creatures and a U.F.O., you know what would happen? Those "peasant" humans would go through chaos immediately trying to grasp onto stronger people because they cannot protect themself, or call it blasphemy, or try to contact these aliens, but whatever it is the wide spread panic could rip apart the country itself. Like in the War of the Worlds, you could see no one gave two shits about another person or family.

We live in a world based on ignorance, money, lies, and all of it without morality. Though there is people who have good morals, but they could never help make things better. So there you have it, life sucks doesn't it? Join the club.

[Tiffany]

I agree that sometimes the politicians have to lie in order to keep from mass hysteria about things. I totally agree that if they were to confirm something like Roswell, there's be MASS chaos because people are sheep and it would probrably induce rioting and whatnot.

On a less political scale, I'm surprised at the amount of lying that goes on during a regular day-to-day basis. I mean, it's everywhere. People lying to try to impress others, or not being man/woman enough to fess up to something they've done. I see it everywhere, even here on this forum.

I mean seriously... is your life that pathetic that you need to try and impress a bunch of people on an internet forum? Jeepers. I'm not saying anyone in particular, it's just conflicting posts I've seen and whatnot.

But to answer your question:

Originally Posted by $Nanaki$

are we seeing the fall of honestdy in modern society?

I don't think there was any honesty from the get-go. I mean... where would it have been? Even back to the witch trials people would lie and say someone's a witch and they'd be killed. There's always some sort of scandal, so I personally don't think that modern society's honesty is crumbling away, because there's never really been any in the first place.

Know what I mean, jellybean?

[Sasquatch]

I like how you used Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Monica Lewinsky as examples, as these were all "no-big-deal" subjects except for the dishonesty concerning them. Helps illustrate how honesty really is the best policy. Good call.

I think honesty has been falling out of American society for a while, but it's not completely gone yet. Gettin' there, though. Politics is the business of lying. I can't find it right now, but I remember some famous quote about how politicians have no talent for running government, only for getting and keeping office, which is done by promising funds from the public treasury. Nine times out of ten, that promise is a simple lie -- the tenth time, it's accomplished by robbing funds from another cause.

I think it does not matter how big it may be, a lie is a lie. I think honesty is gone from most of our society. It us getting harder an harder to trust anyone, and if you do trust them with yourself you always have that chance of them yelling at you. Mothers, father's , Boyfriends. It happens at least once. The day they told you their was no santa, or in my case how religion lies to you. (plese don't flame on that...it was how I grew up, not you!). personally I my own bf is subject to lying out of pure fear of past relationships, and tends to be afraid to tell me things out of fear that I will react like them. So I even though I am not like that, it is the fact that because we have been hurt by lies that people sometimes feel ike they have to lie too. I tried to tell him once, "How would you feel if I lied to you". Truth is he would feel badly. Who can we trust anymore if not our loved ones, if not our religion, if not our government?

[TomStrife]

The world we live in now is even worse than it was before The Flood. Quite sad, really. I can agree that very few are honest. I was going to post one of my favorite lines from The Three Stooges having to do with honestly, but an "Intellectual Discussion" is sorta not the place.

[Lover Boy]

What the hell.

I am always honest with you people, and you hate me for it. I call a spade a spade, and you call me a mean guy.

You're not ready for honesty, in my eyes. A politician lies because you couldn't handle the truth.

[-Xu-]

To answer your question, 'Is anyone honest anymore?'

No, get over it

[Angantyr]

You all have good points, most people these days are lying annoying worms who also can't understand the concept of logic, and then you get people who tell the truth and they get completely screwed over cause of it. I wouldn't say all the time but most of the time I am honest, and if I am not its cause I either got the wrong facts or I haven't been made aware of it. I always tell people how I feel and some people don't mind but others whine about it.

Politicians are paid to lie but so a Lawyers, teachers, Writers etc. I think this is a good subject, but I think it also comes down to what is truth and what is fiction, I often get my head off for stating facts but I can often provide proof, but amazingly people now cry about copying stuff from websites and seem to think that doesn't count. It's pathetic and makes trying to show the TRUTH a waste of time. Also I think people that are whining about others doing it are in fact doing it themselves (Not directing it at you $Nanaki$ or anybody in the forum lol). But I do think there is honest people out there, it just telling who is.

[$Nanaki$]

Well I certainly seem to have stirred the pot a bit here. I just wanyed to touch a little on what cheesevixen said about religion. I think religion is the biggest lie in the world--some are more akin to a cult then religion; They don't let you think for yourself, and have a set of rules that are so archaic that they don;t belong in today's society.

I don't know cheesevixen's experiences, but I would imagine hers were probably a lot like mine growing up. Let's just say it was more of an indoctrination then church. But, I grew up and made up my own mind about things and here I am today.

Anyways, i'm glad I could offer something worthwhile for discussion--sometimes I fell like i'm spinnning my wheels here and I feel stuipid after posting and reading it, but I know a lot of ppl feel that ways as well. It takes someone outside of yourself sometimes to see how you really are.

[Secret Azn Man]

It isn't something new. Nor has it gotten worse. It's always been like this. Lies has been told since before we can even speak. Lies are necessary because as Lover Boy said, people can't handle the truth.

[$Nanaki$]

That's BS -- people just don't want to handle the truth -- they'd rather just go on blissfully unaware of the veil over their eyes then just admit they can handle it and be thought of as antagonistic or not going with the flow. The masses are asleep, they need to wake up.