Lies, they're everywhere, are they worth the trouble? Throughout these three articles, “It’s the truth”, “Honestly tell the truth”, and “Rejecting all lies”, the authors precisely analyze who agrees, and who doesn’t agree with lying, and why. Lying may be the first thing to come to mind when in a bad situation, but does anyone realize how much damage it can cause towards the other person or to the liar themselves?
Consequences and stress are a common outcome of lies, yet people still commit them to deliberately hide the truth. “...Brad Blanton says you’re unnecessarily complicating your life.” Lies that are told often are intended to keep another’s feelings from being hurt, and in the end cause even more damage. Stress and other mental
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“ Because it keeps you locked in the jail of your own mind.” This quote interprets that lying keeps people from the lie you could have told one person but not the other. Both the author and Blanton have a good point where people might have a need to lie and know the consequences, however they still commit them. “... and you manipulate information to control the outcome.” Many liars use this method, and withhold information to oppose the fallout. Some who think it sometimes it’s justified say “I didn’t tell a whole lie”, but don’t see how it’s not the whole truth either. Expectations are set, and state that the person being lied to is the one hurt in the end, but many don’t know that the pejurer themselves are also badly affected or even …show more content…
“...ok to lie to avoid hurting someone’s feelings.” The people who believe lying is justified, usually say it’s ok to not tell the truth to cover someone’s feelings or to keep someone from being hurt mentally and/or physically. However in the long run, they may think it’s for the better but are still blatantly lying and could possibly cause even more damage than intended. “Apparently even white lies are acceptable, even necessary.” Everyone tells a white lie here and there, and if they’re lucky it won’t affect anyone, but why should it be risked? Just because we color code a lie doesn’t makes it kind of “ok.” Do we say a white lie is ok, and a yellow lie is bad, and a red lie is unacceptable?o, because a lie is lie in the end, whether is considered a “white lie” or just a lie. A person might tell a white lie, but gets caught so has to cover it with another lie again and again, and in the end turns out not to be considered a white lie anymore. Others who say it’s justified, have a different opinion on lying, but as a question, why should we lie when honesty is an option?Everyday people hear others lie and see how bad the outcome it could be, however still deliberately lie. When a person lies to you they don’t respect you in a way others don’t see, or when a person calls you a liar they insult your integrity. However, in vise versa if the opposite person lies to them they are being egocentric. So in the
A professional deception detector, and author, Pamela Meyer points out the fact that, “ Lying is complex. It 's woven into the fabric of our daily and our business lives. We 're deeply ambivalent about the truth…. It 's as old as breathing. It 's part of our culture, it 's part of our history. Think Dante, Shakespeare, the Bible, News of the World”, in a TED Talk in which she details certain clues about how to
Should we stop lying and should stop letting people lie to us? In “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson describes lying as “a cultural cancer that… reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible to us as water is to a fish” (Ericsson 186). Ericsson believes that we have accepted lies to the point where do not recognize it anymore. Ericsson has a point when she says that lying should not be tolerated, but it should be the unnecessary lies that should not be tolerated. There are lies that are justifiable based on the intent of the person lying. All lies are harmful in their own ways but sometimes we need to lie to protect others and ourselves.
In this essay, The Ways We Lie, Ericsson writes examples of lies we tell daily. She explains that not all the lies we tell are intentional. We choose to make life easier by lying. This essay also highlights situations that occur in everyday life. Ericson explains that “The white lie assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple, harmless untruth.” (89) She then continue to explain that a “white lie” can be dangerous simply because telling the truth could ease a lot of pain.
When we lie, we only set ourselves up because the one whom you lie to will eventually be told the truth and it will hurt twice as much than if they had heard it before. For example, when I was younger, my father always told me my mother left; however, he did not know why. Consequently, I had given the benefit of the doubt to my mother and pictured her as one who left because she was forced to. In effect, once my godmother told me the truth behind why she left, I developed a sort of inner conflict and hurt. As a result, because I was lied to for so long I still carry the hurt from an event so long ago. In summation, due to
“The Ways We Lie” is an essay written by Stephanie Ericsson, first published in the Utne Reader in 1993. The Utne Reader is an American magazine that publishes pieces from alternative media sources. However, the essay was mostly directed toward people who have told a lie at least once in their life and have may have felt guilty about it. The purpose for the piece was developed using original syntax, logical appeals, and descriptive tropes, the purpose being that one should think twice before telling a lie.
In the essay The Ways We Lie, author Stephanie Ericsson writes in depth about the different types of lies used by most people everyday. While listing examples of them, Ericsson questions her own experiences with lying and whether or not it was appropriate. By using hypothetical situations, true accounts, and personal occurrences, she highlights the moral conflicts and consequences that are a result of harmless fibs or impactful deceptions. In an essay detailing the lies told to ourselves and others, Ericsson points out one bold truth; everyone lies. Through her writing, Ericsson causes the reader to look into how they’ve lied in the past and how to effects others and the general greater good of society.
Lying is a common habit that everyone has had experiences with. I have lied and have been lied to numerous times. Everyone has. However, not everyone exposed to a certain lie is aware of it’s true power. In her essay “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson criticizes our bad habit of lying. She explains many different types of lies and even gives examples to show how harmful they can be as “our acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes invisible to us as water is to a fish” (128).
“Like most people, I indulge in small falsehoods and still think of myself as an honest person. Sure I lie, but it doesn’t hurt anything. Or does it” (3)? The selection lists ten types of lies. Those types are: the white lie, facades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and cliché, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissal, and delusion. The white lie is used when the truth is more harmful than a lie. A facade is when you hide your true self and put on a mask for
About 60% of adults can't have a ten minute conversation without lying at least once. In the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, a character named Christopher Boone has showed me the ideas of lies. In the story, Christopher suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a disorder that 68 million people have. This disability makes it harder for Christopher to talk, makes his coordination poorer, both of which might lead to depression. I found that Christopher is lied to on multiple occasions in the book, mostly by people who are closest to him. These lies were usually made for good intentions, fixing broken trust, or to cover up mistakes made.
Stephanie Ericsson categorizes the many ways people lie on a daily basis. She uses a mixture of facts, quotes and opinions to capture the severity of telling a lie. Her article has enabled me to understand the thought process that goes behind telling a lie. She justifies minor lies by using ethos and stating that minor lies prevents hurt feelings and that it is normal to lie. Stephanie frequently asks rhetorical questions to make readers think of the matter at hand. She also uses anaphora to seem more relatable and understanding to her readers. I tell minor lies on a daily basis but I did not realize that there is so many different types of lies. i and many other people often rationalize with ourselves to make our lies seem less harmful when
First of the so called white lies are the lies permitted to everyone, and those even thought to children. We have all heard this in a certain time: “Ohh but it’s just a little white lie, he will never know”. Of course as a lie you are still hiding the truth and sooner or later it will come out, thus there are other negative attributes to a lie and even to those small and innocent as a white lie. White lies according to the author, are lies that we are intended to not damage someone else feelings. So far we
The mere concept of a compulsive or pathological liar is often repulsive to most of us, but the truth is, many of us aren’t that far from crossing that bridge. In her essay, “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson analyzes not only the many occasions in which we lie, but also the meaning and consequences of those lies. Although Ericsson’s definitions are well articulated, the evidence she employs to support many of her statements lack depth.
Leah Lohse Mrs. Drexler English 11 Honors 4 8 December 2017 Title Understanding how someone can tell so many lies and never feel bad about it is difficult. Many people are not trustworthy in society today.
Ever since birth, people are told about lying and how it is something bad. Lying is projected as something that only can hurt people. Instead the slogan “Honesty is the best policy” is ingrained in their heads so that they are raised up to become honest people. Except not all lying is bad. Mark Twain shows this in his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where Huck and many others lie throughout the whole novel. In the case of Huck, lying is what saves him and frees him from his grim situations. So lying itself is not that bad if it can save someone's life. This controversy over a good lie and a bad lie connect to the binary of appearances vs reality. As society’s appearance to the outside world is simply a lie to hide the horrors of slavery that
According to Robert Braul “Every lie is two lies, the lie we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it.” So, is it okay to tell white lies? Do you tell white lies for your own sake? Why do you lie even though you know that no matter how big or small your lie is, it is still considered as immoral? Well, according to an article entitled “Tell White Lies (Occasionally)” there are 3 possible reasons why people lie and I agree with the author. I agree with Donald W. McCullough that it is okay to tell white lies when we know that it isn’t the right time, place, and way to tell the truth that sometimes we lie to protect ourselves and not to protect other people, and that we should be careful with the words we say.