Courtney: December 2008

Here is my 6th essay. It needs to be a bit longer, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please tell me. Thank you for reading my essay!!

Courtney Ryan
Lauren Servais
8 December 2008
English 1A
Can anyone be a fully honest person?
Every time I get 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. Yet, the more that I thought about it, and we talked as a class, my views were opened up. I realized this question is not so black and white. Many things came up with this conversation. I think that most people do lie, as it is very difficult not to lie, when we live in a culture that seems to accept small acts of dishonesty. However 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 which we seem to tell children very 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 Claus is a real person. We do so, telling our children that he is real, only we cannot see him. I know of many people who I would call honest, that tell their children about Santa. This is part of being a child. Children have these ideas and are allowed to have 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. I would call them honest people because this lie is told to so many children, and I don`t believe that it caused me or my sister any serious harm by being told about Santa. This is because we have created socially accepted lies, when eventually every child will 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. I wish that people would be more honest with each other, but unfortunately not everyone feels the same way. Some people really cannot take responsibility for what they did and would rather simply lye then fess up to the situation. This is partly because people see lying as being the easy way out of a situation, and then they never have to fully admit to themselves what they did.
When talking about lies, I must clarify that I think it is possible to tell small lies, and still be an honest person. When someone lies to a person about how they look, we are only affecting that person, and the people who will be around this person while they appear this certain way. 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. An “out there” lie would be a lie that is farfetched, and much exaggerated. It becomes much bigger 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 to save themselves or another person. When a person tells a lie that affects many people, then other people become involved in a lie that could have been a lot less of a big deal had only a few people been involved, or had the lie never been told, many less people would be involved in this false statement.
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. The war in Iraq is a good example of this. The country was told that we had to attack them because they attacked us on 9/11. Then we were told that we were going to go to war, to get back at them for what they did. Our country was lied to and this has had massive reprocutions. So many people have died from this war, when it was a lie that started this whole thing and could have been avoided. 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 bad 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 times people will say lies to someone that they 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 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. Although I cannot speak for all people, I would say that a big reason for lying about something like this is that the individual simply does not want to have the other person go through the hassle of changing, and perhaps does not really care what the other person looks like. 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, and the only person you are potentially hurting is the other individual.
Some may say that any lying makes a person a liar, which certainly could be an agreement. Although I do not see it as being that clear, and this is perhaps why the issue of lying is so difficult to pin down. This is because when discussing lies, we have to be honest with each other and recognize that it is extremely difficult not to lie occasionally.
An interesting opinion I found on lying is that pertains to the media, which I was interested in. “As CP Scott the longestserving editor of the guardian famously said, comment is free but facts are sacred. News stories, at least in serious media are expected to be accurate. Of course the pressure to break stories first leads to great temptation. A story can be seen as `true’ if it cannot be disproved, or if it survives a news cycle.” (Reeves 2006) This I found rather concerning because it seems that the people who watch the media or read the news are not always being told the truth. The worst pat is that most people don`t have the resources or perhaps the time to thoroughly investigate all that they read. This means that people will accept many things that they see or read without fully finding out about that topic.
One positive to lying that I found pertains to directors, although I imagine it would work for anyone. “Lies of kindness, consideration, encouragement and even inspiration can be truly valuable. Telling someone they are “right on track” and getting better all the time” can bolster confidence and make those outcomes a reality, even if they are, to some extent, a fabrication when they are spoken.” ((Posner 2006) Lies are often thought as a negative. This shows how a lie that only affects a few people can change an outcome. This is blatant lying directly to a person, who without this lie would not have been encouraged by being told the truth at that very moment. This sort of lie is meant to encourage a person to do better than they are doing presently. I do not see a problem with this type of lie, as it is only said to assist a person. This lie also does not have the butterfly effect; it simply stays between those individuals.
There are also the lies that we tell ourselves. In the last election John McCain held confidence that he was winning the election, right through the final days of the election. “McCain did not mind being the underdog; he seemed to almost glory in battling for a lost cause. “The crazier things get, the calmer he becomes," said Matt McDonald, a senior adviser to McCain.” (Newsweek 2008) McCain wanted to hold up the thought that he was winning, even though it was clear that he was losing. I heard say one day to a reporter “we have the people right where we want them”. He was saying this in regard to how the polls were showing he was doing. This is a lie that he was telling himself, in hopes that others would believe him and thus decide to vote for the “winner”. I watched this whole process, and I was amazed that McCain was able to lie in this way, when the facts were pretty obvious that he wasn`t going to win. He installed confidence with people through a lie.
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.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

English Essay #6

Monday, December 1, 2008

Works Citied for Essay #6

Courtney

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