Is it faux or is it wrong?
by Miki SaxonMore than two thousand years ago, a Chinese philosopher named Mencius said, “Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.”
I was reminded of this when I read an article about a new book, “Faking It: How to Seem Like a Better Person Without Actually Improving Yourself
It was written as humor, but brings up a disturbing trend, where faking it, i.e., fudging, i.e., lying, is OK.
“As the authors point out, it’s not who you are, it’s who other people think you are.
To his surprise, Trex, who is 24, found out that “everyone is very comfortable saying they do these things. It’s more common than people realize. In reality, our parents and friends say they do this stuff, too. Especially the older ones in their late 50s.”
“Sometimes being OK with faking it slides over into something a little more disturbing. Take CollegeHumor.com’s recently released survey on cheating, which polled more than 30,000 students. More than half (61 percent) admitted to some form of cheating, while only 16.5 percent felt bad about it. Surprisingly, technology, which has made so much of today’s finest examples of faking it possible, didn’t play a huge part. The most popular form of cheating was looking over someone’s shoulder.” (Survey questions)
CollegeHumor comments that whereas 61% admitted cheating, 39% lied on the survey—more humor or a disturbing possibility?
In today’s world, does cheating still qualify as bent? Does faking it? Or are they the norm?
Where are the lines drawn when everybody does it?
These are the faux people you’re hiring,
Everybody knows that “Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t work, so how will they lead?
How can people who faked their way to popularity and cheated their way through college condemn the salesperson who fudges her numbers, or the researcher who fiddles his results?
People aren’t water faucets, ten-plus years of behavior isn’t turned off because they don a cap and gown.
Meet the business/political/social/religious leaders of today and tomorrow.
