Lying as a means to survive

Telling the truth or lying is a personal choice of an individual, and there is no doubt that the correct and moral choice would be to always tell the truth. Everyone expects people to be honest with each other, and it is even implemented into the justice system, the law, where people are required to tell the truth in order to establish the factual circumstances of a situation. However, some people choose to lie in order to survive or to avoid some painful consequences. The question is whether it is morally justifiable to do so if a person’s life, health or reputation are on the line. From one perspective, life and health are the most valuable things in life, so it might be acceptable to lie for survival or to avoid physical harm. If the word “survival” has a figurative use, for example in relation to one’s reputation or benefit, then lying becomes absolutely unacceptable. Of course, the modern world has a lot of lies present in society, be it for personal gain, advertising a product or for the purposes of moving up the career ladder. “Survival” might have different contexts, and it might seem that in case it is really necessary, a person has the option of telling a lie. But at the same time, choosing an unfair and immoral way of acting will never lead to a beneficial outcome, as the truth always comes to the surface. In conclusion, lying can only be permitted and used as an explanation, when one is trying to save their own or someone else’s life, otherwise, telling the truth should always be a priority.

Alternative writing or speaking style--informal, so to say!)

What kind of a question is that-to lie to survive, no one needs that! Lying is always bad, oh, so bad, people should not do it; it is just wrong, wrong I tells ya. Who needs lying anyway? To tell the truth is cool, you get a lot of friends, grannies will hug you, you will be popular at parties, even girls will like you. To tell you the truth, haha, I had a funny story once. I tried to tell the truth, but it sounded like a lie, and I decided to look nice and lied on purpose! And everyone believed! Can you imagine? People like lying so much that they changed telling the truth and lying places, they put one where the other was. The whole thing is crazy! Now, people lie everywhere, and it does no matter if I or you want to lie in order to survive, and then use this to justify being dishonest, it is a normal thing today.

By Bartholomew Dmyts