The relentless pattern of upholding falsehoods and personal secrets is a vicious habit that leads to many macro and micro problems in society. Not being honest is like supporting a sense of censorships for personal security, almost like a taboo on whether you are living the right way. Look at what people often are dishonest about: Sex, money, labour. Do you ever hear someone being dishonest about how they saved the kitten stuck up on the roof?
The chances are that you answered no. People are, naturally, honest about that which serves them well or benefits them in some way. It's much harder to be honest about things that will hurt us or make us vulnerable and responsible for our actions.
However is honesty only a good policy when it benefits us? That sure makes truth sound like a very relative and subjective concept. Shouldn't truth be objective and not based only on what benefits us for the time being? If honesty were to be the best policy then it would not only apply for actions that we can get away with, but for all actions under our virtue of character.
Accordingly we can value truth and honesty as co-existing concepts. Such concepts exist irrespective of person gains and perspectives, we ought to be honest just because truth brings a greater clarity and less confuse, not because it suits us best at the time. Truth should not be something that stops us and makes us think - truth ought to be something we are proud to carry with us irrespective of personal values and beliefs.
Consider everyone was honest about everything and no-one ever lied - what kind of world would that be? Perhaps an odd one. But one thing is certain: it would be a world with hardly any confusion, all would be clarified and we would be able to have conflicts regarding real issues, rather than issues that exist only due to hidden agendas, taboos, and false ideas. If we strive to get rid of those roadblocks in our communication processes, then we will likely achieve a higher level of honestly, and thus productiveness, clarity, and effectiveness in our everyday actions.
