From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Mon Jul 15 2002 - 22:40:49 MDT
Olga writes
> There were a lot of "hidden" lies in the past - one might say our society
> was "built" on lies (purporting to be a democracy when it really wasn't,
> etc.). If one were to construct two mountains - one mountain constituting
> all the lies that were commonly practiced in the past, and another mountain
> gauging the lies with which we are afflicted today - I'd speculate that the
> "past" mountain of lies would loom over today's.
Yes, you're right, and Randy was wrong in making the claim
that it was any better in the past. As rightly worried as
we are today about business ethics and excesses, it was
worse a century ago, and even worse before then.
A free society has a chance to correct lies and to improve
honesty by critical self-examination, and this is the
process that has allowed Western civilization to rate
well compared other advanced or urban societies. (The
points made before about the effect of anonymity being
very well taken too.) Also, for all the dishonesty and
unethical practices here, it was far worse in the 20th
century socialist regimes, at least the major ones which
suppressed freedom of information.
Lee
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