As a boy he is sent to a rural community to work on a farm for a season, so that he can learn how to pass himself off as a native of that community to a mark should the occasion ever arise. He has absorbed myriad cultures, their customs, accents and religions. Amid the bustling streets and putrid, roiling canals of the coastal city of Camorr, Locke has trained for his career from childhood, an education as intensive, if not as respectable, as that of any university. Meticulous, even artful lying is merely a necessary skill set in Locke's profession. Locke is a thief, and while that may be a crime, it's also a vocation. If there's one thing he's scrupulously honest about, it's his lying. Until the day, as Douglas Adams pointed out, black becomes white and you get killed at the next zebra crossing. In those cases, hypocrisy rules the day and lies simply become truths. And when lies are backed up by entrenched and powerful ideologies, like politics or religion, then it all becomes even easier. Have you ever noticed how so many people, especially those who pride themselves on being paragons of moral rectitude, are willing to give a pass to lying? No one's morality becomes as "relative" as when their deceptions find their way under the microscope of others' scrutiny.
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