“a thoughtful, often amusing look at the way we dodge the truth and tolerate dishonesty.”
Lying is so much a part of everyday life that everybody does it and everybody expects it, even while polls show Americans long for ethics and integrity in public officials. Keyes examines how we have come to the troubling trend toward the “routinization of dishonesty.” In part one of this fascinating book, he provides a brief history of lying from the medieval ages to the present and explores the reasons behind the decline in ethics. Part two focuses on how modern culture inadvertently promotes lying by downplaying ethical issues while emphasizing emotional health and placing more emphasis on personal, professional, and national myth making. The result is the rise in high-profile liars among journalists, politicians, and corporate executives. Finally, Keyes examines the consequences of a culture that tolerates lying as a “no-fault transgression” with little or no consequences for the liar but a disturbing rise in suspicion throughout the culture. This is a thoughtful, often amusing look at the way we dodge the truth and tolerate dishonesty. Vanessa Bush