Ethics

People lie for many reasons. Even though at one instant a person may be tempted for reasons that may apparently seem noble, he or she will be forced to continuously make up new lies to back up the original lies so that the truth may not come to the fore.  It is these supporting lies that cause the real damage regardless of how noble the intention was while making the original deception. A life lived in lies is always a life of self-interest a liar will instinctively spin out lies to support previous lies all to justify the means to an end that suits him or her. A self-interested person is a selfish person who cares only for him or herself. The reasons people lie justify this conclusion.

One reason for telling lies is so that the connivers can feel good about themselves. This is usually prompted by having low self-esteem and low self-confidence forcing the individuals concerned to make up lies about their lives to compensate for their shortcomings so that they can conceptually fit in society better. For this reason, people will lie about their age, educational and employment status, about their love lives and family matters. Alternatively, some people will lie just to seek attention and appear more appealing to their contemporaries. Such a person will exaggerate or make up tales about his experiences to attract quick attention and deceive his or her audience about his or her affluence, dishonestly gaining their respect and reverence in the process. This is immoral and selfish.

Another reason why people live a lie to knowingly and deceptively soothe their egos and manipulate their immediate associates and the establishment is to arouse positive feelings and emotions in the victims of their lies. These self-seekers flatter their victims or insincerely appreciate people just to get in their good book so that they can attract favors from them. Alternatively, jealousy often drives habitual liars to make deceptive statements about their acquaintances to arouse feelings of anger, guilt, resentment or any other negative feelings and emotions in them. These are the worst kind of self seekers.

Whether a person lies to hurt or please, lies always tend to be hurtful in the long run. Every person should understand that whatever goes around comes around, and one should be careful what he or she wishes upon himself because it can come to befall him or her in mysterious circumstances it is called karma. Just like Ted Gyges lied about having pancreatic cancer when he did not have it, he came to pass away under unknown circumstances even the resources and affluence he had amassed using deceptions first to gain entry into institutions of higher learning and later into government service could not rescue him when misfortune struck. Self-seeking will eventually backfire no matter how dexterous a person is while orchestrating lies to unfairly benefit from the socio-political and economic system. Self-interest should not be left to spill out of control and spoil the moral fabric of the society.