As with most words the meanings are restricted to context. I would prefer that we had several words in this case but we have just the synonymous deceit, lie, dishonest, distrust and their antonyms.
If we can view one of the goals of society to be to bring a synergistic benefit to all its composite members, then the presence of deception is evidence of social weakness or in the case of war, abject failure.
I don’t see the examples you give as finite evidence to the contrary. For example, when we have “undercover cops” it creates suspicion and mistrust among the citizenry. I understand that it makes movies more fun to watch but it also has some negative side effects. Average citizens begin to fear the creeping big brother government invading their privacy. We have found from time to time that police corruption has gotten out of control in the big cities. This is also a side effect of allowing too much secrecy within the ranks. We allow deal making with the crooks to extract undercover information and this contributes even more to the question of trust/deceit. When looking at the complexities of the system, it becomes less and less clear-cut that the benefits of deceit, even among the white hat wearers, is a clear-cut “good.” It is not clear at all whether or not law and order, infused with deceptive practice, is providing a just society. If honesty were the policy among the policing ranks, then the deceitful enemies of the state would at times have an advantage. IMO, this would be short term and over time the honorable, noble and truthful forces would catch them in their own webs of deceit. Under this circumstance the overall impression of the system would be one in which justice prevails.
I do not consider keeping your secret strategy in a game such as chess to be an example of breaching someone’s trust. So, I hope that you will agree to narrow our discussion to the actual issue of deceitful lying that is intended to cause harm to another. A chess match is not an example of dishonesty in this context, even though you may be setting traps, traps that you hope your opponent will fall into. It is simply mental exercise not normally intended to do any actual harm to one’s opponent; quite the opposite, in the spirit of healthy competition for which the game is intended. It is an honest game of strategic maneuverings intended in some cases to mislead your opponent in the process. Likewise in war you are not basing your relationship on trust so I don’t think the concepts of deceit/honesty carry the same meanings. |
