A lie is a lie is a lie? I don't think so. I don't think any of you believe that either.
You're approached by a new mother with her baby, the ugliest baby you have ever seen. Do you say, "That's the ugliest baby I have ever seen."? Of course not. You coo and tickle and smile. Truth can be a weapon. A Lie can protect.
Goloborodko, I hope not Zelensky, sees a slippery slope in lying that makes all Lies black. That's the way out of the intellectually and morally flabby. Don't think, just tell the Truth. No matter the harm Truth tells, no gradations. The slippery slope removes human agency. We can't stop the slide. Utter bullshit. I hate slippery slope arguments.
What I like about Lying is the muscular exercise, you have to think before Lying. And before Truth-telling.
JUDGEMENT!
I usually don't lie out of "just" self-interest. I'm a big boy, I can take the consequences. Usually, not always. Depends on how severe the consequences; depends on how black the Lie. Let's say I was charged with capital murder. I'm innocent, completely 100% innocent. Truth didn't get me anywhere with the police. To save my own neck would I Lie and frame another completely innocent person? Tough one...No, I don't think I would. See, I had to think.
What if one of my kids was falsely accused of capital murder? No thought required. I would frame anybody, myself included to save my child's life.
Goloborodko's refusal to lie to mitigate the harm of his intemperate rejection of the IMF loan is, to me, an example of the slippery slope leading to catastrophe for others. You Lie and apologize, your country gets the IMF loan, that's the choice posed in Servant. It's not for your personal benefit, at least not solely or even mostly, it's for 34M people who elected YOU to protect them. Easy call. I presume that is the way Servant will go on this. I hope so.
