Society Without Lies

Picture this, there comes a day where suddenly, everyone who attempts to lie, would have serious consequences, the concept of lying is obsolete and where honesty, truth, would be sugar-coated no more and people driven by integrity would be the norm. Now, this is a brilliant concept, maybe only in our heads and while on paper. How would this affect our society, the way we live, would the truth be too hot to handle? Or simply, living in the comfortable delusion would rather be something many of us prefer? Let’s find out!

Lying, at least once we have done this act in our lives, maybe to hide the fact that we didn’t listen to our parents when they told us to take the chicken out of the freezer, maybe trying to hype up your friend when they’re showing you a song because you’re afraid of hurting their feelings. Lying is often a daily occurrence, at least, in our personal lives. The way that society would change if lying became non-existent, is interesting. Firstly, our politicians, businesses, and several other institutions, would have to live up to their promises, even if they may seem far-fetched to us. If they were to be caught red-handed, well you know the drill, serious consequences! Without lies, our relationships with others would be stronger, since the foundation of the relationships is solely built on trust, truth, and honesty. Transparency would be one of the main basis of the foundations relationships are built on, which with pure intentions, connections would last longer.

Well, as the last part explained, there would be a lot of benefits from having a brutally honest society, but as always with many things considered, it cannot always be perfect. Sure many of us may prefer the truth without filter at all times, but there would be some hurtful encounters in our lives now. For example, let’s go back to the scenario of your friend showing you a song they like and they’re excited to share it with you, guess what? You don’t like it, so now, you’ll show your brutal honesty, hurting their feelings about something they’re passionate about. These small beautiful lies are what makes society live in harmony, sure in this situation music is subjective, each one of us have different tastes, but it comes at the cost of hurting others feelings. Privacy would almost be non-existent, keeping secrets would be much harder, especially with sensitive information. The fear of being judged by others would arise, of course, this already may happen by other people, and some of us are numbed by the idea of being judged by others, but people wouldn’t be able to resist keeping their opinions to themselves, or lying to make sure you’re feeling good about yourself. The most important part is, entertainment would suffer the most, since storytelling, coming up with fictional tales full of creativity would be dull since we cannot make reality bend to our interest. Maybe somehow, society would be able to adapt, by utilizing kinder words and phrasing words more gently, or we would grow numb from our feelings, and emotions, to not take things personally.