Lying Isn't Illegal

Hewlett Packard (HP) is in the news right now. They hired investigators who used the technique of "pretexting" to obtain the telephone records of reporters in an effort to discover who it was that leaked information about HP's private discussions. In pretexting, an investigator goes to a company - in this case, a phone company - and identifies themself as someone that they want private information for. For example, I go to Verizon and say that I'm you. Verizon believes me because I have your social security number and other private information that is rather easy to obtain. Now that Verizon believes me, I can ask them to send me a copy of my phone record. That's called "pretexting".

It's also called "lying". And it's not always illegal. The ninth commandment tell us that it is a sin to lie. A sin is something that has a negative consequence for the individuals involved. As a result, it has a negative consequence for their community. Last I heard, that's what laws were about: disallowing things that were damaging to the community.

I suggest that we put "lying" on the books as an illegal act. The penalty is commensurate with the impact of the lie. If I tell you that I'm a lawyer at a party and I'm not, I should be held liable and get smacked upside the head. If I tell you that I'm a lawyer and I'm not, and I offer you legal advice, I should be held liable and fined and tazered for emphasis (I'm a big fan of punishment including something physical). If I'm an advertiser and I say that my product is the finest product in the world, I better be able to prove it or else I'm lying, and I should again be penalized for my lie.

Things get more ticklish if we start saying that lying is sometimes good. We believe that when we are faced with telling a truth that will produce terrible repercussions versus telling a lie which will smoothly get past an unpleasant situation. It's easier to come up with a story for our parents than to confess to having done something seriously wrong. Unfortunately, we let ourselves get into those predicaments because we're willing to lie in the first place. We have learned that there are things that people are content to hear and things that they are not, and that the only thing that ultimately matters is what they end up hearing. So we have become practiced at lying.

A reflection of all this is that we have also mastered the art of the euphemism. When something is unpleasant, we don't talk about it directly. Illegal drugs might be referred to as "product". An unborn child is called a "fetus". Homosexuality is called "being gay". And lying to a company is called "pretexting". Euphemisms themselves are a form of lying because they attempt to perceive something about the world in a way that we are more comfortable with.

Spend some time today thinking about deceptions and untruths that you have either presented or supported. Look hard and you'll find them all over. I know that I have mine, and they are a monkey on my back. How big is your monkey? How big is the collection of monkeys on the backs of those who have lied in the "best interests" of of a company the size of Hewlett Packard?