Buckley / Ericsson
In their essays both Buckley and Ericsson analyze the different ways we use lies to help and hurt our self in our every day lives, and how this effects American culture. Ericsson shows the way lies can , as she puts it, “ lubricate the daily machinery of living”(128). Buckley, on the other hand uses examples of lies as a way to deny himself; and do exactly the opposite of Ericsson. But they both show how we as Americans use lies these ways and others so much that most of us may not realize it.
Ericsson’s essay was obviously about The Ways We Lie, mostly about the way we lie to other people to make their or your own life easier. Buckley’s essay is not so obviously about lying, but if you read deeper into the text you can see how Buckley makes his life harder by lying to himself. When Ericsson is describing the white lie; she use the example of a friend telling another friend she looks good when the truth is she doesn’t. This is exactly how we use lies to lubricate daily living, we avoid confrontation. “ The liar deciding what is best for the lied to” (Ericsson 121). When Buckley describes the amount of discomfort he endured from the heat on the train, he imagines what would happen to the conductor in an age of more violence. “The passengers would seize the conductor and strap him down on a seat over the radiator to share the fate of his patrons” (64). He has strong feelings toward the conductor, because something has not already been done. When the conductor approaches Buckley; he has intensions of making the conductor aware of the problem, but the simple stare of his neighbor drives him to ignore the plain facts. Even though Buckley notices, “the car was flecked with the white shirts of the passengers”; he uses the stare as a way to dilute the truth into believing that his idea of turning the heat down would not be the consensus of the rest of the car (64).
The way lies have become a part of are daily life as Americans, and the way this has effected our culture is what both Ericsson and Buckley express in their essays. I think Buckley clearly stated his essay’s purpose when he said, “ what has happened to the American people.
Steve Buckley is a sports columnist for the Boston Herald. In his columns on pablo Sandovals gut a weighty problem for the sox, Hanley Ramirez Pablo Sandovals should heed Dustin pedroia's words, and will David Ortiz's retirement tour end the playoffs the author uses no formal sources cited. Steve Buckley makes no attempt to cite the academic origin of the terms used in the columns or the other ideas used through out the columns. He does not go into the research that led to the conclusions. His goal in this brief article for the general reader is to inform and keep moving.
Ericsson uses a metaphor to state her argument and to show the problems that may likely emerge from excessive lying. Near the end of her essay, she states, “Our acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible to us as water is to a fish.” In this line, the author is comparing humans to fish, and lies to water. By stating this, she means that lying is so rampant throughout society that it has become an invisible part of everyday life. As stated earlier in the piece, “There is a world of difference between telling functional lies and living a lie.” The essay suggests that an excessive amount of functional lies eventually leads to other types of lies, and finally ends up with one living a lie. This metaphor is used mainly to allow the audience to realize that lying is a common but dangerous aspect of society. By comparing humans to fish, the audience will likely become a bit offended and search for ways to refute this...
For many situations there exists both a perceived version of the situation and an actual version of the situation. Usually, these two versions vary in some sense. Some people will be able to understand honestly happened, but the majority is unable to see the truth of a situation. They instead view an inaccurate representation of the definite situation. George Orwell’s Such, Such Were the Joys, Juliet Schor’s The Overspent American, and Loren Eiseley’s The Firmament of Time, show how the truth of a situation is hidden by a façade.
In the beginning of “The Ways we Lie”, Ericsson begins by lying to the bank, her client, and even her partner. What would have happened if she had decided to tell the truth? Well Ericsson tried going a week without lying and this is what happened, “The bank charges me $60 in overdraft fees, my partner keels over when I tell him about my travails, my client fire me for telling her I didn’t feel like being on time, and my friend takes it personally when I say I’m not hungry” (Ericsson). The truth is being honest can hurt just as badly as telling a lie. Ericsson lists several ways that people lie, “The White Lie, Facades, Ignoring the Plain Facts, Deflecting, Omission, Stereotypes and Clichés, Groupthink, Out-and-Out Lies, Dismissal, Delusion” which are just a few ways that we lie. Ericsson successfully makes her case, “Sure I lie, but it doesn’t hurt anything. Or does it”. By incorporating personal experiences in her essay, which she demonstrates moments where she has been a liar and a candid person her audience is able to accept reality. Yes lying is bad of course it is, but “We lie. We all do” whether it hurts someone or not is simply a matter of how it’s being told. As Ericsson confirmed through her one week of honesty, “it’s not easy to eliminate lying completely from our
Artifice or deception is often perceived as a negative action. However, it is possible for it to be useful in a political theater, but what are the consequences? Artifice can simultaneously help and destroy someone. If found to be dishonest, a person could lose their position, or lose the support of many people. Whether or not artifice is an essential skill is interesting because artifice is used by many politicians to businessmen alike. This makes it particularly relevant in today’s society. Some still believe that artifice is an essential skill. They say this is because it can be utilized in many situations. There are a few reasons why it is simply not a critical skill.
Stephanie Ericsson’s The Ways We Lie, analyzes and reflects on how lying has simply become the norm in our society. We all lie, there is not one person in the world that does not lie. Most people lie because they are afraid of telling the truth, however what they do not know is telling a lie can lead them in the wrong direction because many things can happen when lying to a person. The person can find out when everything unravels that person will not have trust in you and you would be known as a liar. To every action there is a consequence, so why not deal with just one consequence when telling the
Traditionally, it is agreed that any and every form of telling the truth is always the best thing to do. In the essays of Stephen L Carter and Stephanie Ericsson, this ideal is not exactly true. It is expressed in "The Insufficiency of Honesty" as well as "The Ways We Lie" that honesty is hard to come by and that there is more to it than believed. The authors convey their views by first defining what the concept is, picking it apart, and then use common occurrences for examples of the points they had made.
In “The Ways We Lie”, Ericsson describes the different types of lies: white lie, facades, ignoring
Lying is an issue that has been debated on for a long time. Some people believe that lying is sometimes ok in certain circumstances. Some people believe lying is always acceptable. In contrast, some believe lying is always bad. Keeping all other’s opinions in mind, I believe that lying is a deficient way of solving problems and is a bad thing. I claim that only certain situations allow the usage of lies and that otherwise, lying is bad. Dishonesty is bad because it makes it harder to serve justice, harms the liar individually, and messes up records. Furthermore, it should only be said to protect someone from grave danger.
Upon reading and examining two essays, “Life under the chief doublespeak officer” a narrative by William Lutz and “Homeless”, a descriptive by Anna Quindlen, I firmly believe that Quindlen provides the preferred essay due to the gravity of her subject, greater personal relevance, and that her material allows the reader to sympathize with the subject matter.
Emerson manages to demonstrate throughout this essay the need of an identity and the need of being true to oneself by means of using literary devices such as metaphors and pathos.
The problem with self deception is that we aren’t as perfect as we desire to be. We dare not admit that, especially to ourselves. Instead we live out our lives in a ‘manufactured’ way. We have trouble letting things fall as they may,
It is not hard to look around today and see all of the lying and deceit that humanity pollutes the air with. Most people go around not thinking about lying, and go along with it anyway, because the majority, including our leaders, do it without second guessing. It is common for many people to think of lying exactly how it is on the surface, not telling the truth. Sometimes it is important to second guess the stereotype of lying and begin to realize that lying is even more prevalent in today’s society than most people might imagine. Looking around today with this mindset would help us make more informed political decisions, better decisions on friends, and better decisions on advancing our lives. Our lives are not horrible places, but if
Toma, C. L., & Hancock, J. T. (2012). What lies beneath: The linguistic traces of deception in
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