I won't bother with the obvious; to adequately entertain others, one must lie. Everyone either knows that, or is, to put it gently, an idealist.

More to the point: Lying itself isn't important... the knowledge that lying is absolutely inevitable is important.

You can't tell the truth. No one can. It isn't possible.

Everything is temporary, slippery, relative, colored by perception, filtered through complicated neurological filters that alter its fundamental nature in ways that range from the minor to the mind-blowing.

The belief that you can pin down the truth with words is simply a cultural concept that allows us to more effectively agree upon a rough consensus of what consitutes reality.

Tell me the truth... any truth... and I'll show you that it isn't true, or that it isn't always true, or that it can't be proven true.

And before you accuse me of simply being contrary, and of presenting this solely for the joy of argument, let me also share with you the fact that I frequently live my life (or at least try to live my life) according to the Principle of Denial of Absolute Truth.

In short, though I may be guilty of such territorial power-plays as arguing for or against abortion even though I have no firm opinion on the matter, when I argue that the grass is not green, it is because I don't believe that the grass is green.

I'm not always the Devil's advocate.