Omitting Isn’t Lying

My parents taught me not to lie.  I did anyways.  As I grew up, I learned the damage a lie can do.  I learned that telling the truth not only felt better but WAS better.  Then, I learned about “white lies,” and the world became a little less clear.  I coped, moved on, grew up a little more.  As I grew to adulthood, I learned that the space between a lie and a white lie was really, really grey.  In college, I learned that there were shades, levels, and degrees of white, black, and grey depending on socio-economic status, celebrity, political clout, tenure, and a whole host of other variables.  

At some point, I learned that all lies tarnish.  I learned that all lies dirty our hands.  I learned that there is no such thing as a white lie; there is only the consequences of telling the truth or telling the lie.  We make choices.  And one of those choices is to lie or tell the truth.  Rather than confront the truth, some times we avoid it.  We avoid the truth, spin it, twist it, and present it in a way that preserves our mental position.  In that process, it ceases to be the truth.  It’s not called a lie.  It’s not called anything because it isn’t really there.  What would you call the absence of truth without a lie?  I think omission fits.  

It’s one thing to not address a thing by not bringing it up.  It the other party doesn’t bring it up, we leave it at that.  It’s another thing to answer a direct question by leaving out a bit of truth.  Again, not a lie; it’s just an incomplete answer.  Apparently, that’s OK.  It must be because I see it all the time.  I’d still call it omission.

Apparently, omitting isn’t lying.