Different Types Of Lie Explained In The Ways We Lie

Lying drives against everything most people represent, but it is true that we all lie at some point in our lives, and sometimes it is difficult to realize that. There are some cases when people believe their lies which it becomes a disease, or cases when people lie in order to not hurt others. The difference between knowing if it is an acceptable lie depends on what kind of lies do we tell, such as a little white lie to make someone feel better or big lies that may hurt others. Not all lies are intentionally told to hurt people, but there are times when dishonesty is one of the best decisions to make. The fact of whether is there a time when telling a lie for the sake of another person really be an acceptable lie such as the white lie is totally true, but however, some lies can have serious consequences and can be harmful to the person lying or the person being lied to.

In Stephanie Ericsson's essay 'The ways we lie', Ericsson mentions different ways people lie, explaining the reasons why they do it. The author describes the different lies by explaining them from the simplest to the most complex. First, she explains that a white lie is telling a harmless lie instead of the truth. Second, facades lies, which are described as lies that are used to make people believe illusion and make them look and feel like something they are not. Next, she talks about ignoring the plain facts and deflecting which are similar because both involve not addressing important facts in an answer. Still, she talks about omissions that are purposely leaving pieces of information out of an answer or not answering at all. Also, the author talks about stereotypes and groupthink which are also very similar in the sense that they both create lies based on a group’s actions or feelings. Finally, she talks about an out-and-out-lie which is a straight forward lie.

Throughout Ericsson's essay, the anecdote or personal experience she talks about with the type of lie being discussed makes the audience totally comfortable by making them agree in some way to all the different facts she states. The structure varies enough to maintain interest, while also presenting information in a fair and accurate fashion. With different examples of my own life, it is not so hard to not lie, but sometimes being totally honest hurts people, and to avoid that is okay to tell white lies sometimes. A white lie is telling a harmless lie instead of the truth especially told to avoid hurting someone's feelings. In the day a day of most people, it is normal to tell this type of lie because most of the time it does not affect others and does not cause any problems. The authors state that all her audience is made of liars, non-liars by saying “We li. We all lie. We exaggerate, we minimize, we avoid confrontation… Sure I lie, but it doesn’t hurt anyone. Or does it?”. With simple words, her thesis is absorbed by the fact that we all lie, for different and reasonable reasons being them good or bad.

A variety of examples are explained about why the author thinks that one day without lying is kind of impossible. While Ericsson explains all the different reasons why she believes that it is quite possible to eliminate lies from our lies, she says 'I once tried going a whole week without telling a lie, and it was paralyzing... There must be some merit to lying”. She establishes the idea that lying has become fundamental to our society, and that it is so that people lie in order to simplify problems too often and that is way is hard to remove lies from our lives. The fact of lying is totally wrong, but there are times when a little lie is not bad at all. Most people lie when they are afraid of the consequences that telling the truth may bring. On one hand, talking about little lies that kids tell in order to not get in trouble because of a problem, are lies that are acceptable. This type of lies are not harming others, in fact, they are just told because kids are totally innocent. While in the other hand, when an adult tells a lie no matter why, it must be because of a good reason and always taking into account all the different consequences that it may bring. Needless to say, lying is not good behavior and should not be used on a daily basis or ever if it is possible, because serious consequences can harm the person lying or the person being lied to depending on the situation.

There are different experiences I passed to related to telling white lies. Lying can make people not be able to trust you, although still based on personal experience, it is totally true that there are some cases when white lies are better to tell than the actual truth. Even though, sometimes the truth hurts more and there are white lies that can help make others feel better it is not bad at all to tell them, the thing is to always think about all the good or bad consequences that a lie may have upon others. A lie about a small or unimportant matter that someone tells to avoid hurting another person is not entirely acceptable, but there are times when lying because of a very important purpose sometimes can be acceptable even if it is not correct. Something to take into account is that still telling the truth can make you look a real truth person upon others, which is something good. With some personal experience, I remember when I went to my friend’s house to have lunch and the food was awful since it was something I never eat before. In that moment, I was embarrassed to say that the food was not good at all so I needed to say that is was actually really good and eat it. That little lie that was something totally irrelevant had a big consequence for me because I had stomachache the whole week after. With this example is good to see that this type of lies are not bad at all, instead, they are acceptable. It also happens when someone revives an odd gift. It happened to me and in that case I just need to say I love it and thanks. These types of lies are lies that happen in a day to day and are told in order to not hurt others feelings.

Finally, according to Ericsson, all the different types of lies she states are acceptable until a certain point. The fact that is quite impossible to not lie at all in a whole week is something true because for one reason or another, there is always a time when we all lie. The fact of whether is there a time when telling a lie for the sake of another person really be an acceptable lie such as the white lie is totally true. As it has been stated a white lie assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple harmless untruth”. However, as the author states, “…it’s not easy to entirely eliminate lies in our daily lives”, continuously everyone will still lie no matter what. Everyone must always understand that just with little lies there will be no problems because people are always culminated to lie and if we say we don’t, we will be lying once again.