English Essay #5

Courtney Ryan
Lauren Servais
17 November 2008
English 1A
Every time I got to the grocery store, the clerk will ask me how I am doing. Most of the time I will just say, “I`m good”, even when this is not true. Lies, wait, aren`t people who tell lies liars? The other day in class we discussed lying and Lauren posed the question of, is it possible to lie and still be an honest person. My first response was to say, well no. Although the more that I thought about it, and we talked as a class. My views were opened up to realize that this question is not so black and white. Many things came up with this conversation. I think that most people do lie, as I it is very difficult not to lie, when we live in a culture that seems to accept small acts of dishonesty. There is a big difference between small lies that only affect you and a few others, and a lie that will affect many people.
An example of an accepted lie is Santa that we seem to tell children often. When adults become parents, many parents begin to tell children things that are not true. Christmas time is a good example of this. Most parents in our country begin to tell our children that Santa Clause is a real person. We do so, telling our children that he is real, only we cannot see him. I know of many people whom I would call honest, who tell their children about Santa. This is part of being a child is having these ideas and having an imagination to make believe. It is interesting to look back on how I viewed my parents, and how much I believed in Santa. They were also very honest people. This is because we have created socially accepted lies, that eventually every children find out the truth. This lie is only told to young people, and has become part of the childhood experience.
We live in a culture that seems to accept lies. I think that people often tell lies just to save themselves from something they did. In this case, it is often easier to just lie, than confess. We are a culture that doesn`t accept the truth as much as I think we could. When most people get pulled over by the cops, it is our first reaction to lie and act as though we didn`t know we had done something wrong. This is done because people want to save themselves, and don`t want to admit the truth. People would rather try to get out of a difficult situation, then to say the truth. We have these cultural norms that we are supposed to follow, and a certain way that we expect others to act. It is often times easier to act innocent then recognize what you did, and accept that as the truth.
When talking about lies, I must clarify that I think it is possible to tell small lies, and still be an honest person. We live in a society that makes small insignificant lies acceptable. Yet, if a person tells long involved “out there” lies, that they tell all the time, then I would consider them to be a liar. It is when a person tells a crazy lie, when the truth might have been easier, and perhaps not so difficult to discuss. It is when a person tells lies just because they feel that they can, or just to completely disguise the truth.
I think that how a person views lying has a lot to do with the morals a person has. I was raised in a family that taught me that lying is not good. Not in any situation, nor for any reason. I grew up as a pretty honest person, for that was encouraged in my family. In my house it was spelled out crystal clear that if you lie, you were a liar and that if you never lied you were an honest person. Meanwhile other families might either directly or indirectly teach their children that lying is acceptable, as long as you do not get caught for your actions. Your morals are your own personal beliefs about something, and I think that the subject of lying falls into that. I wish it wasn`t accepted for people to make up big lies, as they can cause many people harm. Many people believe that if they can get away with lying, then it is alright. This works for some people although it can have some very consequences.
One may say that a person will lie most to the ones that they care about. As we all know, people are sensitive and often time’s people will say lies to someone that we care about. Would they still be considered a liar? We as humans often want to hear what we think, even if this is not how the other person really feels. This often comes up when someone will ask another person how they look. Often times even when a person says you look great, they will say that they look good even when the other person doesn` t look very good in their opinion. I would prefer honesty, although some may argue that this is an acceptable lie, simply because you care about the other person. Yet, I think that this falls into the category of a white lie. For it doesn`t affect a large group of people of people, and the only person you are potentially hurting is the other individual.
As a society I feel as though we should strive for a culture that is as honest as we can possibly be. Even though small lies are always going to happen, I feel it would be in our best interest to try to be an honest group of people. People respect honesty and I think people would respect other people more if we all told the truth as much as possible.