The Art of Judicious Lying

Abstract:When he began writing Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain believed in an Enlightenment idea of progress and focused much of his satirical energy attacking literalist religion as a vestige of a more primitive state of human civilization. He called these vestiges lies. By the time he shifted his focus to the problem of racism, he began to doubt the idea of progress, wondering instead whether all cultures are fundamentally based on lies and therefore impervious to direct efforts to promote progress. He postulated instead that judicious lying is the best tool to improve humankind.