Interesting paradox. If you take the ability of the receiving person into account, and modify the truth so it is acceptable, are you being less honest than if you bluntly detail the grim facts of some psychotic story which is itself already riddled with huge falsifications? I think not. The example of explaining the world to a child is telling.

The question is where the line is drawn between "positive modulation" of truth and simple self-deception or direct lying, and the rationalization that persuades that one is actually the other sometimes. Another peice of the paradox is that we are often called upon to communicate about things of which we do not know the truth. A little humility goes a long way as was mentioned earlier in the thread.

A