The Forum > Article Comments > Back off Michelle Leslie - time for honesty about lying > Comments
Back off Michelle Leslie - time for honesty about lying : Comments
By Mirko Bagaric, published 5/12/2005Mirko Bagaric argues Michelle Leslie was right to lie to get out of an Indonesian jail.
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Bullsh*t is not, however, traditionally associated with outright lying. When we lie, we are usually and beneficially "outed" by our peers or family - that's our culture speaking. Like drunk d*ckheads at a party, we say to them "C'mon...grow up mate". And if you do get caught, then you're meant to cop it sweet and just admit it.
But the penalty of lying is not usually spending time inside an Indonesian jail. With such high stakes, what we do there is surely our own very private decision and perhaps it will be one we regret later. It would be bizarre tho, to claim that a decision to commit perjury in court was not made under duress and distress. Perhaps she should have thought before she acted. Yes she should have told the truth. Perhaps she isn't a nice person. But whose actual business is all this now?
But since when do we have to carry on here like a pork chop just because the media orders us to? Her mates will let her know in no uncertain terms whether they thought she was honest, a liar or a weak willed person in a Balinese dock that could be forgiven but never emulated or praised.
We don't like hypocrites but we also don't normally launch moral attacks on individuals just for our amusement. We too know the public spotlight can tilt towards us as well and never leave. Being let out of jail may not have been the end of her troubles, for her friends they may have only just begun.
..as usual i think shakespeare had and has it right ...
To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man..