The Deceptive Nature of Truth

I think "truth" is verbal veneer for a combination of things like sensory awareness and survival. I also think deceit is part of truth, a method by which to survive so it's logical in its own way. An example, it may not be true that a certain country has nuclear weapons but may bluff as to feign a stronger defense and I see no moral issue with it. I think the problem with deceit, in general, is that you have to be careful you don't burn the bridges you may need to cross at later points. In a world with so many interconnected bridges, we typically see deceit as a bad thing. You also may be seen as an unstable bridge if you admit to using this tactic. But deceit, or "lies", are a necessary part of life as a person and geographical entity, or country. That said, it's generally more optimal for survival to always play it straight so you can expect others to reciprocate the behavior, at least that's what I've learned from Game Theory. And of course, this is basically how societies tend to operate because without that layer of trust or predictability, society can easily fall apart. But to some extent, you have to deceive to survive. You will have to do some "bad" for a greater "good" but it's all part of the game. Just be careful that you don't become the monster that you fight, as Nietzsche would say, in that you become so embattled with doing a net good that you become a net bad.

 Of course, most of this is all common sense and likely not news if you've read any Machiavelli but I think we like to cover up the validity of deceit so much that as a society, we've come to see it as a singularly bad thing. But it's not easy to admit things like this because you could be seen as a social pariah instead of a truth bearer but I think being transparent about the rules of the game serves some sort of common good.