The Ways We Lie Argument Essay

Alcoholism is one of the most delusional lies one can tell themselves. In the essay, “The Ways We Lie,” by Stephanie Ericsson, she states that, “alcoholics … believe that the problems in their lives are legitimate reasons for drinking rather than results of the drinking” (477). Alcoholics believe that they can stop at any time and that the benefits outweigh the side effects. They lie to themselves and lose trust from peers. I understand this first hand from my alcoholic granfather. Alcoholism is a direct result of being delusional. Delusion is the most catastrophic way to lie because it can cause physical danger, it creates isolation due to the lack of trust and it hides underlying issues of the delouser.

Lying is evolving into normalcy. Since there are several types of lying, there are loopholes and ways that people defend themselves for telling untruths. For example, we tell lies in order to evade trouble or consequences but tell ourselves that it is better or easier that way. Ericsson claims, “We lie. We all do. We exaggerate, we minimize,

There comes a time in every persons life where they feel a burning sensation to lie, but is it worth it? Don’t they feel the shame and the guilt of that lie? On average, people lie between ten to two hundred times a day. But doesn't all of that lying come with a lot of conflict and trouble? The more that you lie the more conflict arises by avoiding truth then if it were to be faced head-on.

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).

A lie is considered a false statement given to fool someone. At some point throughout the day everyone will stretch the truth. Are lies just really some version of the truth or are they bold and deliberate? Lying is discussed in-depth in "The Ways We Lie" by Stephanie Ericsson and in the article "Is Lying Bad for Us" by Richard Gunderman. The two articles discuss the types of lies, reasons people lie and the consequences suffered by all. It can be determined after reading the texts that lying causes undue stress and telling the truth is beneficial in more ways than one.

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.

It is very true that we lie. We lie everyday conscious or unconsciously, anywhere and to anyone. It has become a way of life to many people, when one lies it feels completely normal, actually they don’t feel anything at all. One can be couth lying in any place like work, home and to different person’s friends, family, clients, teachers and even authority. In the preface of the story the author had describe how in a day she had lied a minimum of four times to various people. In spite of this the authors tried a different approach she tried now to go a week without consciously lying, she discovered that it is merely impossible and of course as various negative consequences. So the main topic here could be why do we lie? Thus to know the reason why we like we must first examine the ways we lie, the so commonly ways we lie daily fashion. And to these there are several ways to lie, let’s examine two: The so called “White Lies” and of course the common stereotypes and Clichés.

After reading both stories, I found that I enjoyed Stephanie Ericsson’s, “The Ways We Lie” the most. This story was very interesting and made me think of many different things. I did not realize that there were so many different ways to lie. I was guilty of doing a few of them. After reading the section about the white lie, I realized that I do this sometimes without even noticing it. Ericsson gives the example of when your friend may look terrible one day, but you tell them that they look nice just so they would feel better. Most people, along with myself, do not see this as a bad thing because you are doing something good for someone else, but either way you are still lying. As I continued reading, I was also shocked about a few parts, especially

We are told from a very young that we should tell the truth, and that lying is wrong; an immoral action which we should not engage in. Yet lying is a large part of daily life, whether it be our lying to others or others lying to us, around us, or lying in ways that affect our lives. Oftentimes, the lies we tell are for social gain; for the purposes of esteem, affection, or respect. We lie as a way to manage others impressions of us. Studies have found that women are generally more intimate in their interactions, which would suggest that they lie less. However, might women lie more to benefit others, as opposed to self-centered lies? A study by DePaul et al. (1996) set out to answers questions about the frequency of lying, types of lies told,

We all lie in our lives just for something stupid that may be no use to you or us all but what matters is how much the lie impacts the current action. One of the main key factors to this section of my vision is lying one of the most ongoing problems for society to live it’s like a creed embedded. Say that man was the light that shined from the stars and the lies were the shadows and darkness, the lies hides the light that once shined throughout the lands but now it’s covered by a cocoon of lies we would be that dying light. I’m not saying it’s bad but it’s a common issue that’s been long term such as greed and self petty for yourself, it’s a gene in man’s code. I knew a kid from Washington from a school called Lydia hawk elementary, he was nice guy with heart but he had a mind that haunted me for years. We traded of toys on bus one day and I told him to not break the toy, as soon as he left the bus he tossed, smashed, and even bitten my toy then say his dog did it. I reported him to the principal’s office by the next day, I asked him why he did this event and he said that he was using me to so he could destroyed all things that I love but a toy that’s pathetic. He lied about my friendship so he can get close to and take everything that I owned, sad part about it is that this situation has occurred 3 times in my life. I hardly trust anyone now with

Lying has is a part of our culture, and it seems as if not a day goes by where you do not lie at all. Our world could not exist as it does, if we lived in a society in which lying did not exist. However as humans, we are prone to lying, because of our need to protect ourselves, or the ones close to us, that we turn to lying in order to either make our lives easier or to avoid problems. Humans have adapted over time into societies where lying is an evolutionary advantage, which has made it a part of our DNA. Even children, as soon as they can talk, are using deception as a way to get what they want, and these children have not even had a chance to learn to lie. Lying also continues throughout our entire lives, because it is not something that we can help, it is a part of who we are. When evaluating the argument Stephanie Ericsson makes in “The Ways We Lie”, regarding the reasons we chose to lie, however it is also important to consider extending the argument to include the idea that lying is not only a daily occurrence, it has also become imbedded into human nature.

What are lies? A lie is defined as follows: To make a statement that one knows to be false, especially with the intent to deceive. There are several ways that lies are told for instance, there are white lies, lies of omission, bold faced lies, and lies of exaggeration. No matter what type of lie that one chooses to tell many people believe that lies do more harm than good.

Socrates is a man of great controversy. He has been portrayed as many different personalities such as a sophist to a great philosopher to just a vocal old man. The true nature of Socrates is to be questioned. He spoke his thoughts on life and what his philosophy on life was. A couple arguments that he spoke about really stood out about lying. These arguments had brute force and were made very clear through his dialogue. According to his dialogue, he felt that there were two different types of lies.

Sometimes, some people will use a lie to hurt or laugh at someone. For example, when I was in primary school, my classmate enjoyed to laugh with someone in my class. Maybe they want to make fun of people, but they always make other people feel really bad of themselves. My teachers always told us to not do those awful things to other, but they didn’t care about that. They still make fun of other students. I think it is an immoral way to use lie because that would hurt not on the body, but on the spiritual side! If the spiritual gets hurt, it is harder to recover than physique pain! Also, my classmate could destroy a person childhood. It is the fact and grave! Lie can destroy everything not only childhood!

I also agree that we should think before we act. First, we tell lies to avoid hurting the feelings of someone. Words are very powerful so when we are friends with someone and we know that they are hurting we usually tell white lies to make them feel better. In addition, we tell lies to protect their own feelings. If we know that a lie can make a person happy then go for it even though it is bad because we love them and we will do everything for them. Second, we tell lies to avoid getting into trouble. An example is we prevent physical and mental harm. A situation that is proper to this is when we are in danger; obviously we need to tell numerous lies to protect ourselves from getting hurt. Third, we tell lies to avoid losing someone. We tend to lie because the truth might ruin our relationship with the person even though we know that when we lie to someone, we already ruin the relationship we have with them. Moreover, gaining the trust of a person is very hard; we tend to push them away because some of us have trust issues, so when we finally gained that trust we are afraid to