Comment by bkrausz
16 years ago
The question of what to reveal on official documents comes up fairly often. On the on hand, telling the truth can cause unnecessary trouble, on the other hand, lying is technically illegal. I'm amazed at how often people are strongly incentivized to choose the latter.
I have lied on the security it forms, but with approval of the agent. As I recall the question read something like:
Have you ever used or abused <<giant list of drugs, chemicals, and substances that goes on for a good 2 inch tall paragraph in small type>>, or glue?
Right there at the end… glue. I had to confess that I not only used glue on a regular basis, but I had just showed my preschool daughter how to use glue and we had a grand time using glue together.
In a decision to pain logicians everywhere the agent deemed that my "use of glue" was not "use of glue".