Should I Join the Dark Side of the Force?

Today I received an offer to blog for pay, the secret dream of many bloggers with moderate or low income like myself.

Unfortunately for my ego, I wasn't chosen based upon merit. I had answered a call for bloggers posted on Craigslist. "Want to get paid for writing?" the ad copy said.

Quite tempting, you know.

I received an email today with additional information and a non-disclosure agreement, in .PDF format, that states in legalese that I must keep mum about all the shady things I will be paid to do.

I am faced with an ethical dilemma. Do I really want to be paid to lie?

The company boasts of being a "reputation management firm for the Internet" with the goal of "neutralizing bad publicity" by so-called "liars and cranks" in the blogosphere.

I happen to think much of that bad publicity is well-deserved.

Dear Mr. Business Criminal, if you do not want someone to write something bad about you, then don't harm people. Don't mislead. Don't lie, cheat or steal. Simple, huh? Know what this is called? Ethics. Try it some day. You might like it. You might even find that people like you because you're ethical.

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I spent much of my life designing technological solutions for people. It saddens me to see technology misused for lies and distortion, as if we weren't already deluged with deceptive propaganda from radio, TV, books, newspapers and magazines.

The Internet was supposed to be an anarchic realm where average Joes could speak their piece and even--wonder of wonders--be heard from time to time. Instead of accepting this new paradigm, the business community is up in arms against it and taking steps to shut people up and clamp down upon this dangerous free speech. Business owners enlist lawyers and Internet reputation management firms to shut the little guy up.

So much for freedom of speech, eh? It was a good idea while it lasted, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and the rest of you elegant aristocrats.

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For about five minutes, I really considered doing it, which in retrospect is embarrassing. Yeah, I could use the cashola. No lie. To date, my ad revenue has amounted to $1.10, which translates into about two cents per blog entry. Is that union scale? Somehow I doubt it.

In the end, though, I found out something about myself. I'd rather die than lie.

I don't want to be another one of these well-paid liars I read all across the Internet and the mainstream media.

Sorry, Darth. I just can't join the Dark Side of the Force. Sorry. I'd rather die.

If life means anything, anything at all, then ethics has to play a role. There has to be a higher purpose to this existence. If truth doesn't matter, and money is the only goal, then we are all better off dead. Let's clear off and let another species evolve intelligence on this planet.