Rick Lowe
William Damon has an interesting essay on honesty over at "Defining Ideas".
Society seems more accepting of the "shading of the truth" &/or "tiefing" as we call stealing here.
But back to the essay.
Here's a very pertinent excerpt.
"Our serious problem today is not simply that many people routinely tell lies. As I have noted, people have departed from the truth for one reason or another all throughout human history. The problem now is that we seem to be reaching a dysfunctional tipping point in which an essential commitment to truthfulness no longer seems to be assumed in our society. If this is indeed the case, the danger is that the bonds of trust important in any society, and essential for a free and democratic one, will dissolve so that the kinds of discourse required to self-govern will become impossible."
In politics, capital is constant and the truth is variable.. After all politicians never lie, only the truth changes.. On the stage of national politics, the political actors stage their theatrics to appease their constituent audiences.. So be it for what we once called truth.. Has truth made us free?? You be the judge.. VERI TAS