A parable

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2000 years ago a rather strange group of people explored deep into the French Alps and discovered a wonderfully fertile valley with all the good water, timber, and even ores they needed to live a peaceful and productive life. What made them so strange was that, due to a couple of particularly actualised people, they had developed a social philosophy of intense morality and ethics, and they found that living in a world of competition and warlike tribes was too horrible to contemplate. Over the centuries they learned to expel those who didn't take well to their philosophy of honesty and straight-talking/dealing, and by the time the outside world began to interact with them, their honesty had become genetic, and they were constantly taken advantage of by unscrupulous traders. Eventually the elders realised that they would have to learn how to deal with this, so they began to look for children who showed some vestigial ability to call the world something other than it was. By the late 18th century this program had been successful, and there was a small proportion of each birth cohort which had some talents for lying. Once they reached adulthood, every 4 years they competed in a Lyers Olympics, and the winner was appointed s the tribes Chief Lyer, a much honoured and prestigious role, since he and his staff (the runners up) handled all contact with the outside world, and ensured continued prosperity. Today, of course, they annoy the hell out of the outside world, who find it quite unfair that they call this functionary the Liar. Surely, we say, they could have had the good grace to do as we do, and call them diplomats, or politicians, or Public Relations Officers, or their cognates. How do you reckon you'd handle someone who was incapable of lying, and who saw euphemisms as simply a nice way to say something Nasty? (With due credit to the creator of this parable, Sir Terry Pratchett "Equal Rites".) Lash