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 “The Ways We Lie”, Ericsson describes the different types of lies: white lie, facades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and clichés, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissal, and delusion. First Ericsson claims that white lies is when a person “assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple, harmless untruth” (Ericsson 181). A person decides that it is better to tell the lie rather than to tell the truth because of how he or she perceives the outcome will be. Ericsson believes that people who use white lies decide what is best for the other person and it “is an act of subtle arrogance to decide what is best for someone else” (Ericsson 181). When people use white lies they’re assuming that what they are doing something that is beneficial for the other person. Although they do not know
We will never be able to eliminate lying from our society because it makes our lives easier; it is just easier to tell a lie. We will always want to hide things from our friends, and parents and add those little things to our stories that make our lives sound better and more interesting. It is a little scary how use to lying that we have become and how easily that we will believe these lies. We will always want to lie or even need to lie and it will always be
In her paper, The right to lie: Kant on dealing with evil, Christine Korsgaard offers an example in which lying is morally permissible under one formulation of Kant’s categorical imperative yet not another. From this Korsgaard concludes that Kant’s formulations of Universal Law and of Humanity as an End in Itself are not equivalent, and that one is more strict than the other. In this paper I will present Korsgaard's example and then use her interpretation of the Formulation of Universal Law to evaluate what it would prescribe as the correct responses to three additional cases.
The history of publishing has been plagued with literary hoaxes — from the somewhat harmless Ern Malley hoax to the most recent Belle Gibson scandal. Unfortunately literary hoaxes will continue to happen, unless publishers begin to fact check manuscripts before publication. Publishers claim they are unable to do this due to the financial cost of the procedure and this is a believable claim. If you spoke to an average person they would say that the print industry is dying, thanks to the rise of digital technology, and there has been a downturn in profits.
Growing up, my mom always taught me to always tell the truth, one of the first times that I can remember this was really stressed to me is when I was just a young boy. At the time I was a trouble maker and would always altercate the truth to save myself from getting in trouble. I thought that this was the most ingenious thing because I could get away with anything by just telling these little “white lies”. In history these small lies can make huge impacts on the path that we take to move forward. For example, a native American figure in history that went by the name Acorn Whistler victimized others by lying and finally fell victim to it himself. Now Is lying just something we as humans do to get what we want or is there a deeper ethos behind
In “Brad Blanton: Honestly Tell the Truth” , an article by Barbara Ballinger reports that you should honestly tell the truth rather than lying. Ballinger supports her idea by reporting that Blanton says “Because it keeps you locked up in the jail of your own mind”, which means lying can sometimes trouble you when the guilt hits you. Ballinger also states “Delivering the truth is easier, takes less time, and is less stressful.” This quote means that when you lie or keep the truth from someone then it causes a lot of stress and it just takes less time to tell someone the truth rather than lying. Ballinger wants to report that telling the truth is better and less time consuming than telling a
ies are expressed in a number of ways. It’s actually quite amusing to think just how many lies people tell every day. In the essay “The Ways We Lie”, author Stephanie Ericcson talks about the different kinds of lies, why they’re told, how they’re justified, and the consequences that come with telling a lie. Ericcson states, “We lie. We all do.
Often times in relationships people tend to drift apart from each other due to their inability to be committed to each other for an extended period of time. Liam and Gabriella from the short story “Bluffing” by Gail Helgason demonstrate their incompetence to maintain a full commitment to one another, which results in Gabriella realizing that her relationship with Liam has come to a fork in the road. Liam has to choose between her, and his hiking career. Whereas John and Ann from the short story “The Painted Door” by Sinclair Ross exhibit their ability to stay together as well as be understanding, truthful, and communicative with one another. They have all the fundamental keys to a healthy relationship.
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,
The methods in which men and women communicate are eminently different. This being so, their external state is an indicator of their inner state, but men and women have different external states to express themselves. This is especially evident among children and individuals in relationships, and altered between a couple who tries to adjust their behavior. Deborah Tannen, the author of “Sex, Lies, and Conversation,” argues that boys are girls are taught to have a differ inner state, that males and females usually have the same inner state but express them differently when communicating, and that individuals in romantic relationships can alter the way they present their outer state to represent their inner state in a way their partner can relate to.
These forms of lying take the attention off the liar by either pushing the blame towards the victim, or seemingly ignore the issue that the lie is covering up. There are other lies that are a combination of other types of lies. For example, delusion, which is the use of excuses to defend lies, is a branch off of dismissal. Ericsson also points out that “groupthink”, which is lying to remain loyal to a community, is a mixture of ignoring facts, omission, and other types of lies written about in the essay.
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?
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
Everyday people tell lies that seem minor and ineffective on life. These lies are considered white lies or kind lies. A white lie is a cautious, wrong statement which is meant to do no harm or is intended to produce an encouraging result. Adair Lara’s Couple lie shows readers white lies in marriage. She states “This is marital lying. It’s not a white lie, meant to spare your feelings. It’s a pink lie, a couple lie.” In her opinion white lies and couple lies are different, couple lies are acceptable. The author and many people see white lies and couple lies as a way to get through life, but are the results always positive? Couple Lies and White lies may seem innocent and harmless but can potentially cause problems in relationships and
In today’s American society, lying has become something that we are accustomed to using almost every day without even realizing it. In “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson, screenwriter, advertising copywriter, and writer, elaborates on the act of lying and how it is used by everyone on a daily basis. She comes up with a list of the common, different kinds of lies that we all have told. Furthermore, the text goes in depth about the significance of lying and how it is an essential part of every human’s life. Ericsson’s essay effectively conveys this idea through the use of pathos, logos, ethos, personal examples, rhetorical questions, and analogies which helps the reader better understand the reasoning behind lies and how it affects our
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