When Is It Okay to Lie?

They say that "the truth will set you free" but at the same time, learning the truth can be painful if not uncomfortable. Just like the childhood lie that my parents make me believe about Santa Claus being real as I written on this post and the reason why I learned about their lie is because I caught them in the act but if not for their lie, I do not think that I will have the same amazing childhood, always looking forward to Christmas.

Another childhood lie that my parents told to me is that if children go outside, ghost or monsters will come and get the children to eat them which is quite a scary lie to tell a child but that lie has most likely protected us against being abducted by bad people or child molesters that may not be as scary looking compared to any fictional ghost and monsters but were the real danger. And now that I'm a grown person, I will most likely tell the same childhood lie to any of my relative's children.

At times, there are also situations where people finds lying as an alternative option if telling the truth can lead to a confrontation due to conflicting opinions. Just recently, an election was held in my country and some of my relatives who works in the government have their preferred candidates that they want me to vote. Although I have candidates in mind that I want to vote, I lied to my relatives and say that I will vote for their pick rather than inviting a potential conflict.

I also sometimes lie when people tries to invite me to a party and told them that I have a prior engagement during that time or if I go to the party, I will tell that something came up and I will need to go early when in reality, I was just trying to avoid alcohol or do not want to get wasted. In this case, it may just really be an excuse but outrightly telling the people the truth may just sour our relationship.

Lastly, what if I told you that there is an occupation where you are not doing your job right if you are not lying. A job where every actions that people do is made to deceive people to entertain them. That was what Magicians do. To use illusions and tricks in order to misled people that they are presenting magic to people. They will even rigged their props to make their performance more believable. If there is a situation, where I can say that it is totally acceptable to lie, it will be this profession as the goal of the lie is to entertain people. Ironically, it was also the most convenient excuse or people to lie, that they are only doing their job.