Everyone claims they want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But do they really? Think back to the conflicted teachings of your childhood – we are all taught to tell the truth because you wouldn’t want to be lied to. Yet adults acknowledged situations exist when it is necessary for grown-ups to tell little white lies. But of course children still shouldn’t … darn double standards.

One more trip down memory lane. Remember the movie Independence Day? In the movie the U.S. government has known about the existence of aliens for many years, but kept denying their existence to the public. In fact, they kept it so secret they didn’t even tell the current president.

PRESIDENT
“Regardless of what the tabloids have said, there were never any space crafts recovered by the government. Take my word for it, there is no Area 51 and no recovered space ship.”

Chief of Staff Nimziki suddenly clears his throat.

NIMZIKI
“Uh, excuse me, Mr. President, but that’s not entirely accurate.”

Fast forward a few minutes …

PRESIDENT
“Why the hell wasn’t I told about this place?”

NIMZIKI
“Two words, Mr. President. Plausible deniability.”

Of course I didn’t understand what the heck plausible deniability meant at the time, but it stuck in my mind. It’s one thing to not tell the general public about the aliens that visited earth, but the president is a horse of a different color.

Now that I’m slightly older, I understand that the government might not necessary want to alert the public of the existence of extraterrestrials. You saw how they reacted in the movie! Shooting guns in the air, crazy people partying on roofs, rioting, and general mayhem! But if it is in the government’s best interest to lie about this, what else is there? Where do you draw the line?

It’s hard to prove government conspiracies, but that doesn’t keep people from trying. Here are a couple shady ones that rely on numbers, making it more difficult to lie about: What if the government determines it is in their best interest to have 3% inflation, should they tell you when it’s not, or fudge the rules a little bit so you don’t notice? How about unemployment data? If someone is unemployed but not actively looking for a job, maybe no one will care if the government drops them from the calculation?

But let’s not limit this discussion to just government misdeeds. Individuals can be just as bad. Just about everyone not in Fleetwood Mac (see below) would agree that they want complete honesty from their boyfriend/girlfriend. Is that how it happens? Or are little secrets kept here and there “because it’s easier than explaining.”

Regardless of your preference, little lies or brutal honesty, I would argue that it is getting harder to keep secrets in today’s world. This is the age of information and it is quickly becoming difficult to get away with the things that would have previously gone unnoticed. Today news spreads like wildfire. Everyone has a camera on their cellphone and an audience on Facebook or Twitter. Hell, I can even read Tiger Wood’s text conversations if I am so inclined.

We have seen a shift toward openness as a result (or maybe in spite) of this new trend – if the information is going to get out eventually anyway, it is best to be honest from the beginning. People are posting intimate information on social networks, companies are blogging corporate insights and sharing extaneous information with the public, and the President is posting the White House’s visitor logs.

Is all this openness a good thing? Will it eventually drive better behavior? I’ll leave you with a quote to ponder from Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt: “‘If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”