HONESTY
I'm a stern advocator that people should present themselves exactly as WHO and WHAT they are, so that others may have the choice of addressing them accordingly. This doesn't mean that I don't believe in those extenuating circumstances in which the "good lie" becomes the lesser of two evils. For, in my experiences of dealing with men and the institutions created by them, I definitely concur that a government may be justified in using deception. So I totally subscribe to Montaigne when he writes (Essays iii.1): "...Likewise, in all governments, there are necessary offices, not only abject, but vicious also. Vices help to make up the seam in our piecing, as poisons are useful for the conservation of our health....We are to resign this part to the strongest and boldest citizens, who sacrifice their honor and conscience as citizens of old sacrificed their lives for the good of their country....The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre; let us leave this commission to men (and women) who are more obedient and supple". Italics and addends mine.
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But, as to the private individual who takes satisfaction in the practice, I condemn it as marks of cowardice, hypocrisy, and maliciousness. I, being a peculiar sort of gentleman, declare that I am not driven by such sinister and dishonorable motives. Let me assure you that my being me doesn't make everyone reluctant to interact with me, because, sometimes, I can render services that conventional law enforcement cannot. And, more often than not, mutual self-interest readily dispenses with the usual prohibitions against dealing with other races or (ex) felons. I will never forget or regret, in particular, a very stressful emergency in which my help was sought by someone whom I distinctly knew belonged to the Tri-Kappa Fraternity yet, nonetheless, was a political figure of prominent stature. A cherished offspring had recently became "unaccounted for," and I was asked to "safely conduct" the missing party back home, if I was in the position to do so. Within several hours the task had been accomplished. The quid pro quo came years later, in the discovery of suppressed material evidence that was integral to helping me win my PCR. That would not have been possible had not the other gentleman the presence of mind to approach me on the level in which I sincerely advertised myself. My honesty, though ironically defamatory as it may appear at times, rarely sets my ideological square at odds with my moral compass, and turns out to be my one true redeeming quality. MY WORD IS BOND!
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