Noble Lie

The noble lie is anything but noble. The idea is mostly associated with government, for good reason. Government lies to us to manipulate public opinion to bring about certain results, like war and wealth redistribution. But because the noble lie persists and too many people over the centuries have lived by it, it has created an environment in which moral hazard thrives. Lies perpetuate themselves even though most people know two lies don't equal the truth.
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Present-day champions of the noble lie are the neoconservatives, and their influence is strongly bipartisan. The principle of lying and deception for the people's "benefit" is endorsed by each administration regardless of party. The lies are considered noble since a cohesive society is sought. Modern-day neoconservatives have been largely influenced by Leo Strauss, who studied and was influenced by Plato and especially by Machiavelli. According to the neoconservatives, lying is reserved for the nobility; it's not for the common person who may lie on an IRS form. Lying is reserved for the powerful and those who claim they are the only ones who can take care of the ignorant masses.

And Ron Paul rejects that idea completely. He provides a brief history of the idea, from Plato to Hitler.

Hermann Goering [second in command to Hitler] said from his prison cell in Nuremberg in 1946, as recorded by G.M. Gilbert in his Nuremberg Diary:

Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war where the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a communist dictatorship...that is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifist for lack of patriotism and expose the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

He names some prominent neoconservatives:

Some of the well-known neoconservatives who influenced our foreign policy over the past decade include Paul Wolfowitz, Abram Shulsky, William Kristol, Irving Kristol, Kohn Podhoretz Michael Ledeen, Stephen Cambone, and Richard Perle. There are many others. Each has had some connection to Strauss and has been influenced by him directly or indirectly.

Ron Paul provides further a list of abhorrent neoconservative beliefs, and some insight on US war propaganda to both the Congress and the people.

It's safe to assume that if the elites who want to run our lives justify lying, they obviously have something to hide and are doing things they ought not to be doing. Liars hide the people from the truth. Government secrecy becomes necessary to protect the facade that allows domination over the people. The citizens' privacy must not be allowed or else the people will plot against the government and expose its corruption.

Irving Kristol actually argued that there should be different sets of truth fro different categories of people. he believed that the idea of one set of truths for everyone is a modern-day fallacy. Communism was based on the belief that only the party established the truth, and it was not rigid; it changed according to political priorities. Without a belief that truth exists apart from what government says it is, peace, prosperity, and progress are impossible.