Should authorities lie in order to modify behaviour?

No, they should just change the traffic pattern to a simpler one that doesn't cause the confusion.

No, because warnings will be treated with skepticism.

No. Less authority please....

No, I don't believe authorities should lie in order to positively modify public behaviour. I do believe that dumb people should not give birth, however, and this is a perfect example.

Sadly, I already treat "work area" signs with great skepticism because about half the time there turns out to be no work area after all.

No, because it will bite them in the ass. Unless you're lying to provoke a detainee to confess to a crime.

Should we continue to elect public officials that consistently lie to us? Hmmm...That doesn't leave us much choice... It does tend to remind one of the old "boy who cried wolf" story...

As long as the lie isn't harmful I have no problem with it. But the authorities should realize that once people figure it out, it won't work anymore. Crying "wolf" isn't usually the best strategy.

No, because global peace and harmony comes from being able to trust everyone. Alas, I already see hidden intent behind just about everything in the media.

No - remember 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'.

no

If it works and it's not harming anybody then yeah, of course.
But by allowing authorities the permission to lie in all matters opens a whole new area of, erm, stuff that I can't remember the name of right now. Dammit.

In this case, when the cause is harmless, yes.

But not like in the States since 11 September 2001, where the Bush government is telling the American people very little about Afghanistan and Iraq just to keep them stupid and to justify attacks on these countries. (source: The Eagle's Shadow by Mark Hertsgaard).

Seems harmless enough in this case, though, from a practical standpoint eventually people will become distrusting.

I am not so sure thats a good idea. First of, people should NOT be misinformed even if it means some lives may be lost because of the truth. Yes, I do beleive that the end justifies the means (in most cases), but people shouldn't be treated as if they were little children just in the name of protecting them from themselves.

A perfect example of this, here in the US, we have all those anti-drug movements. DARE and all the other bullcrap. Yes, I know, drugs DO kill people, and they're just trying to save lives, but that doesn't mean that they should use scare tactics as a means of saving lives. Yes, some people will die from drug overdose, oh well, so be it, but I am smart enough not to use them, and if these people where honest in the first place, I probably still wouldn't use them, allthough I would consider it.

Anyways, in this case, the truth eventually will get out an the people will just start to disregard all warnings from authorities. Example: a few weeks ago, some butt-hole pulled the fire alarm at 3 AM in the morning >-:(. Then they did it a second time, but people just ignored it. By now, if it happens again, people won't be so egar to run for their lives. And soonere or later, there really will be a fire, and then we'll all be screwed.

Where does it end? What if you can't trust the motives behind a single gov't program or word you hear on the media. Already we have package bills designed solely to pass a loophole through legislation. What if traffic delays are created to exhaust public productivity hours because there's nothing that actually needs done. What if every pop song is subliminally selling drugs? What if every new public facility is a facade for someone extorting vast public funds? What if every ad or show you see has been run through several departments to influence who has children when, social behavior, shopping behavior, eating behavior (s. american milk imports will be low next month, so this week start ads on how dairy is bad for you). etc. etc. etc. It's not fair for society to have to view their windows into society as the devil incarnate, cautious at every moment, never knowing if they had been misled, and accepting it all as an insignificant loss, happy to isolate themself in multi-media cell phones which pretend to be the world but are a mere calibrated fabrication, reflecting the personalised demographic feedback response on what the individual will fall for.
No. The only humanist answer is bare truth in all public affairs. People would look differently at events and ads if they knew just how many corporate, product, and gov't input with whose personal interests in mind go into any public instant.
I have run into radio talk-show lecturers who can railroad even highly attentive listeners into 'seemingly' rational compelling arguements towards a viewpoint the listener is adverse to, by tactics like presenting seed thoughts, and jumping instantly to the next step before there this an opportunity for the flip -side notion to arrive, presenting the adverse opinion in a ludicrous light, etc. etc. The science of subliminally swaying public opinion is nearly a century old already. When a single company owns 1200 radio stations as well as other synergistic media like billboards, we can not allow this to happen. '1984' was 1984, and as the book said, no one noticed or cared.
Yesterday I was on the phone for several minutes nearly accepting a credit card offer until I caught two sly words which meant that the 1 year 0%apr would not apply to the balance transfer I was about to make, and would have cost me an additional $600. ..All for not catching two sly words.
I don't want to live in a world where my mind is full of distrust for everyword I hear. Zero tolerance is the only way to stop this from happening.

What about the opposite philosophy? Distrust everyone, expect the worst, then you won't be caught out or suffer disappointment.

I was reminded of "the boy who cried wolf" as well!

Yeah, it is sort of like: "Let's tell the children outrageous lies about drugs.". I think we all know how well that one worked...

Yep!

..and one can feel life is good doing that?

No, I don't believe that anybody should lie and that includes the authorities. Plus, the public would probably never pay attention to signs if they were being lied to. They'd think all signs were bullcrap.

no, because it's unethical.

You will never be disappointed with anyone.

Neither are corpses.

Corpses are burnt.

don't get scary on me.

Corpses turn into diamonds.
Okay that hasn't much to do with what you're discussing...but well...

ooh, much better.

Without thinking of the explanation, the question itself makes me picture an authority figure making empty threats. "Knock that off or I'll..."

fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me

I think the public will begin to treat all warnings with skepticism. This is the case for many New Englanders who bomb around on back roads in Massachusetts at double the posted speed limit despite the "WARNING: DEAF, DUMB, BLIND AND ACCIDENT-PRONE CHILDREN AT PLAY" signs on every block. For some short term purpose (I'm having trouble thinking of one) it might make sense but after a while people will just ignore it, and possibly more serious signage as well.

I'm sure our government has told us Americans everything we need to know about Saddam Hussein and his terrifying Al Qida hordes. Ever since Al Qida took Iran away from its beloved Shah, Hussein has been fighting a war against democracy and freedom in a desperate bid to make the whole world as miserable as his unfortunate country. Just because the Iraquis have never had electrical power, hospitals or women that can read doesn't mean they need to push their radical version of Muslimism on us Americans with the help of Korea and Germany! Now is the time to start bombing these countries, before they can build a fuel-air bomb capable of destroying entire city blocks. Especially Germany since we already have a base in their country, they wouldn't expect an attack from an ally, they insulted our glorious President praised be he and they're full of Turks who everyone knows are just Irakis by another name anyway.

Shoot, I got quite away through your reply to Zang before I realised you were kidding. Scary!

That is a pretty good spoof of an insane rant. If I didn't already know that you have a twisted sense of humour on par with my own, I would have thought you were serious. I particularly liked the bit about "...Muslimism on us Americans with the help of Korea and Germany!"

All Americans know how to sound like loony hicks. It's something we learn in civics class in the third grade.

That's funny, because it's true.

I prefer that my authorities lie to me. I sleep better that way.

lying is stupid in any form.

kaleb777 wrote:
> Ahhh, spring in the western suburbs
> of Brisbane, and it's 40 celsius (104F)
> already. Eastern suburbs are 33C (91F).
> It hasn't rained properly for about
> 6 months in the city (execpt for 2 days
> when Kristal said she wished rain for
> us). It's gonna be a bloody stinker
> summer. If you feel inclined to pray,
> gut a chicken, sacrifice a virgin (if
> you can find one) in order to give us
> rain, go ahead. I can't remember what
> a cloud looks like. Hows the weather
> where you are?
>
> You can check how your prayers/spells/hopes
> do here http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR502.shtml
>
>
> Colours are deceptive. Anything blue
> is only thin cloud or smog. Yellow is
> sprinkles. WE NEED GREEN OR BETTER FOLKS!
>

Here is the weather in my part of the world:
http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/ASXX0112_c.html

Strange, i never saw that comment before, and it doesn't seem to exist now. It's presence here is even an eye-opener. and there's an understanding of color I didn't realise you had, yellow -> green was something I had to go back to Thor to remember. makes me reconsider my more mortal retirement transgression. People won't let me retire anyhow. One gal seems to have just adopted me as her guru, visiting me at home, though I try to steer her away from the path, and my theater teacher knows the energy I cast, and got annoyed that I briefly elected not to do it while reconsidering the karma and propriety of my position here on earth. That magnetic forcefield seems to burn lately, even though I seemed fairly sure lately that keeping my hands out of ethereal affairs was the virtuous path. It's not clear and simple as I'd hoped. And it's work. I get injuries, frequently. The hand laundry silks wrinkle now when drying. I'm starting to realise i had some things pretty good as kristal. Hopefully I'll zero in on an appropriate compromise of consciousness.

I hope you do. I think you should take a lot of the advice you gave me. Live more in the now. Don't worry about the things you can't see.

I can see that praying for rain in brisbane did something, but I also surrounded myself with histories and futures, usually dark. I have a temper now. repairing the vacuum was not on todays agenda. There are times, like getting the deadbolt to work, that only the kristal ethereal touch can make work until I make a trip to the hardware store.

It rained today. There was about an hour of thunder, then it drizzled for about 2 minutes. Take the best each side of you has to offer. TEmpers can be a good thing if controlled. I got a new checkout to open yesterday because I yelled at a person at the supermarket.

I thought a bit about lightening today, and rain last night. Just a minute ago I was considering 'lightening' as a chat handle. Chose 'Xethyr' though. If temper shakes one out of complacency towards injustice, or lifeless stagnation, and there are no other options, then I suppose it's a good thing. I bet though that there were other ways of getting a new checkstand open. Your temper will find it's way back to you, but if you too can accept harsh constructive criticism, it's not a problem.

Temper comes after a fair bit of frustration for me. I don't just go around flying off the handle. I though an average of 6 people waiting at each checkout with only 10 checkouts open out of 30 justified the opening of some more. At least the other customers supported me, so I feel I was justified. I think you would have some problems getting to use 'lightening' since almost every combo of letters seems to be taken. I bet you had not trouble with 'Xethyr" though. What does the word mean? I reminds me of a car, the Zephyr.

'Tis a cross of Zephyr, a mystic greek wind, Zither, a harp like guitar, and Xene, strange, with a trace of thor present, and alluding to zie ether. What do you mean by taken? apparently not here. Is there some global handle registry?

Every time I try to register my handle on Yahoo or any major system it's always taken I usually end up with something like 3845y3rjh375y4

I see.

do what it takes sometimes thats the only way to get your point across you tell the truth they don't believe it or just disagree because they think they cute
sometimes it better to not know anyway most people live in a make believe world and knowing the truth would destroy them

interesting.