I don’t think the concept of honesty is subject to ratings.
Honestly? No. Neither in the giving or receiving sense. If you’re dishonest with me, I’ll stop talking to you. If the roles are reversed, you should do the same.
I think it is a little. There are some things I would rather not know. Sometimes the timing is wrong to be honest, too. When I fight with my wife or even a co-worker, I need time to tame my response. And in business forget about it. I wouldn’t have a job if I were honest to everybody there all the time.
While trying not to evade the question too much, I believe overrated is the wrong word. It is by no means the end all be all answer in all scenarios. Let’s look at the issue of National Security. If a government must resort to deception and secrecy to maintain the security of its people, then honesty is certainly not the key principal. If lies must be told to preserve security, than in my opinion that is acceptable.
In personal life however I would say for the most part “honesty is the best policy.” Lying can certainly be good in keeping people happy, but in a good personal relationship simply making the other person happy in the short term shouldn’t be the main priority. Of course there’s always going to be those cases of “Does this make me look fat?” (The answer being no of course, regardless of honesty). I guess it boils to weighing the benefits. For example, in the “Does this make me look fat?” scenario, what is anyone really gaining from you telling the truth? And reflectively, what do you really gain from being honest and releasing information regarding national security? Is knowing the truth really better than being endangered?
Honesty is not the same thing as transparency. It’s not necessarily dishonest to keep things to yourself, though in certain situations it may be.
Can you please describe a hypothetical, but plausible, scenario here?
Well, the various official speeches by and about George Patton and the First United States Army Group, which were fictions designed to make the Germans think the Allied invasion would be at Calais and not Normandy.
I see. Clearly deception is a valuable tool against your enemies.
I think a blanket adherence to honesty is overrated. Too many people use “honesty” as an excuse to be an ass. Kindness and social niceties are important, too.
Hey, it’s not MY fault those fat-ass bastards can’t handle me keepin’ it real.
I don’t think honesty is overrated, if anything it’s underrated, but it’s also not just a single value. For instance, with the infamous question “does this make me look fat?” there isn’t a single accurate answer. Certainly if limited to yes or no, then I suppose there is, but how much of the world is really that black and white.
I also don’t think deception as a tactic qualifies as dishonest, it doesn’t even really make sense, it’s a necessary tactic. For instance, if you’re watching football and they do a trick play, would it be meaningful to describe that team as dishonest because of that? Instead, in a competive sense, honest isn’t about accuracy of reporting, but about playing fair. you will hear a player or coach or team described as dishonest if they cheat or otherwise don’t play fair.
That all said, I do think there are situations where honesty isn’t necessarily appropriate, but it’s only really when compared to other highly valued virtues like compassion. For instance, it may be truthful to talk about the failings of a man at his funeral, but I don’t think anyone would value it above the compassion for the bereft. But at another time, like in a breakup, it’s generally better to be honest about the situation than try to soften the blow out of compassion and leave the other person confused, not to say that it needs to be harsh. So there’s not even an absolute value as much as a relative one.
So, yes, honesty is extremely important, but its not just “saying it how it is” as it involves other concepts, and it is not always ideal to place it above other values either.
If anything underrated. If getting caught lying brought severe consequences, it would free up enormous amounts of resources now devoted to documentation and fact checking. I am completely disgusted with the extent of lying here.
I value honesty too highly to waste it on the undeserving.
I see it along the lines of the “golden rule”. I would want people to be honest with me, so I would want to be honest with people. Exceptions, like “does my ass look fat in these pants” questions, still might fall under the “golden rule”, as I would not tell someone they do indeed look fat, and would not want them to tell me about my fat ass. So honesty can be situational, even though I mostly strive and search for truth.
Yes. I was brought up to be honest, not to tell lies, to tell the truth. If someone had told me to lie my ass off because lies grease the social wheels it would’ve saved me a gigantic deal of grief. Call them white lies, call them fibs, call them whatever you want, most people lie a heck of a lot during an average day of interaction, and if honesty was really so good and valued by so many people it wouldn’t be necessary to lie so much just to get by without conflict.
My policy is not to tell lies that harm nor deprive anyone, nor are likely to come back and bite me in the ass. And I err on the side of caution and conservatism. Outside of that, reality is mine to represent as benefits me.
It’s overrated by some people, underrated by others. I don’t buy the idea that some people push that you should always under every circumstances tell the truth; to use the obvious example I don’t feel obligated to tell any Nazi who asks that Anne Frank is hiding in the attic. And yes, I’ve seen people argue that you should tell the Nazis because Honesty is Always Right, no matter what. Absolutism like that doesn’t work well in the real world.
I disagree. Honesty is at least worth a seven. But seven out of what? That’s the real debate at hand.
I’ve had people accuse me of not being honest with them. Frankly, they were asking for information they had no business knowing about, and I told them so. Withholding privileged information is not lack of honesty, it’s keeping confidence.
I know what HIPAA stands for…
