10 Things You Didn’t Know About Lying
10. Politicians have been liars since the dawn of Western civilization
In the West, we often think of ancient Greece as the forerunner to contemporary democracies. And as far back as the 400s BCE, there is ample evidence that politicians were liars. One of the most famous examples comes in the career of the politician Alcibiades, who was famous for defecting to whatever side was winning in the Peloponnesian War. An Athenian pro-war politician and strategist, he defected to Sparta, where he also pushed for war. Then he defected back to Athens again when things went bad in Sparta. His favorite political tactic was deception.