Do We Really Believe That Honesty is the Best Policy?

          "Honesty is the best policy." How often do we hear this slogan; maybe we have even repeated it ourselves. Yet, in the culture of our free world, you ponder the widespread thefts, ethics violations, many different forms of cheating, deception and lies in all settings--it's clear that many among us don't see this principle as applicable to our own lives. Do we really believe that honesty is the best policy? Dishonesty has become so widespread in much of our free world, especially in the US and no doubt in other countries, that general background checks, including criminal background checks, are becoming more and more firmly entrenched in our culture and are growing more and more thorough. And when we seek volunteer positions with nonprofit organizations or places of worship, which often have not conducted general background checks or criminal background checks, we can expect more screening and more thorough screening. Why? Because our identities and the data we provide in applications and interviews can no longer be taken at face value. Among the honest, true individuals among us, criminals hiding their pasts lurk and to identify them we all must, more and more, pay the price of giving up a measure of our privacy and a zone of our civil rights in order to keep our society safer.
          There are countless instances of this massive dishonesty. Employer and executives of nonprofit organizations complain about misrepresentation, lying and even outright fraud on applications, not only about applicants' criminal histories, but also about accomplishments and achievements in education, employment and other areas which are covered on applications. They "cry foul" about ethics violations, fraud, theft or hidden criminal pasts that surface on the job or, increasingly, through background checks. In schools, cheating is alarmingly common among both faculty and students. In the workplace, stealing is common among both management and labor. Embezzlement and other widespread ethics violations prevail in the corporate world, in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. I don't think I need to go into the countless political scandals that involve fraud, ethics violations and even crime. Need I go into the countless intances where secrets and lies within our families and in our places of worship so often tend to foster sick atmospheres where gossip and lack of trust flourish?
          What has made dishonesty so much a part of the free world? One need not be a psychologist to to be able to offer explanations for this, so I'll give it a whirl. Much of this begins right in the home. Many of us grew up in homes where we saw family members, even our parents, bend the truth; we may have even been told: "It's okay to tell a white lie." We may have witnessed family members lie on applications for jobs, benefits, income taxes or more. And so we absorbed the idea that, at least sometimes, it's okay to neglect the truth. Or, we may have grown up in abusive environments where we felt the need to lie, cheat or steal to survive.  We may have, at some point in our lives, been in tough, even desperate economic situations where we have felt driven to lie on applications for jobs, benefits, or other services. Some may even resort to identity theft (stealing another's personal information, like a Social Security Number), to obtain those services or goods. And, as I do, I'm sure you may even hear people declare, cynically, "Forget about honesty being the best policy; you have to sometimes cheat, steal or lie to get by in this dog-eat-dog world." We may hear, "That wealthy company won't miss that little bit of money or goods; why not help yourself?"
          Because of all of this, we live in a culture where we can no longer trust each other and where our rights to privacy and our civil rights are slowly being eroded. Now, when we want secure employment or even a volunteer position with a nonprofit, we can count on an employer or executive looking up our information on the Internet, doing searches on us to see what we've been up to or what's been said about us. We can count on our profiles being visited for their evaluation purposes and anything we post can be used against us. Offline, we can always assume that anything we do can be caught on surveillance video or other means. It's sad that we have gone from an honor system where we trusted each other to do the right thing because it IS that, the right thing. Instead, we have gone to a system where we can no longer take each other at face value and are guilty until we are proven innocent. Trust, the foundation of all human relationships, is being eroded by all this widespread dishonesty.
          I can share many stories from my own life about this matter. I can recall only one intance in my life, as a child, when I was involved in theft, and my motive was to gain attention because I felt ignored. I received that attention for sure, but not the kind I wanted. At age 17, when I was under the influence of inappropriate prescription drugs and another substance, I recall lying to keep my habit going. Aside from this, I created for myself a personal code of ethics where I would commit myself to the truth and never knowingly or willingly lie, cheat, steal or deceive. Being human, I know I have and will no doubt, keep erring in even this area. A trait of autism, including high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger's Syndrome (ASD) is the tendency to be honest to a fault because of a rules-orientation (and truth is a rule). As I'm self-diagnosed with this condition, this may explain my devotion to the truth, even as I know that it's a Scriptural principle HOW we tell this truth--always in love. But aside from this point, there are a number of time, even as an adult, when honesty and full disclosure have backfired. Three separate times I have applied for volunteer positions, fully disclosing my medical conditions. In the third cases, as I had agreed to submit to a background check, including a criminal background check, I also disclosed my concerns over possible "red flags" that may show up in this background check. All to no avail. My application was still declined. Even though I realize that this screening is essential to a safer society and success and effectiveness in business, I can't shake the feeling that my integrity and honesty has been called into question and it has also shaken my own trust in people. Very sad.
          This gets me to this issue of autism and other neurological conditions or disabilities where people, in general, are marked by lack of guile and unfiltered sincerity and honesty. This is because so many in the disability culture don't have the social skills or the verbal skills or the cognitive capacity to engage in so many forms of the dishonesty which I have been discussing. I have already discussed my own experience with honesty. In the case of my daughter, who is formally disagnosed with autism, high-functioning, mainstreamed and on now on the honor roll, she tends to be very frank. Even when she shares negative information, it's seldom said in anger and never said in malice. I don't know what studies have been done on this, but do you hear of, for instance, many workers with disabilities being accused of or caught lying, stealing or being involved in ethics violations?  In my opnion, it seems that
many in this culture have not absorbed the values that fuel so much widespread dishonesty. Maybe different neurological wiring is actually an advantage in some ways; this argues that difference may not be just "as good as" but in some ways "better than"!
          Being honest can indeed be risky and can even backfire, but the risks of dishonesty are even greater!