The Degrees of Deception

I will delve into the moral issues that people have when they think about deceit. My personal definition of deceit is when someone manipulates another person into believing what they are saying is the truth even if it may not be. In this paper I will argue that there are different degrees of deceit that don’t always break someone’s trust. The evidence I provide will show that our definition of deceit in our Western culture is impaired. It will show people who believe that deceit is morally wrong and it can only bring about distrust may need to re-evaluate their definition of deceit.

There are several different types of deception such as a the myth’s we grow up believing in, a little white lie, trickery, pranks, manipulation, and lying. Each one has been classified as a degree of deceit, but we must take into account all of the reasons behind each one. Some of the deceptions are meant to keep our imagination and dreams alive; others are meant to save someone’s feelings; and a majority of them are lies that are meant to save ourselves or manipulate someone into doing us a favor.

People are always cautious when it comes to the fine line between deception and the truth. Throughout our lives we are told not to deceive anyone otherwise we would eventually lose them due to our deviousness. However, the same could be said about telling someone the truth. How often can we find someone who has honestly never deceived or lied to someone in their life even if it was unintentional? Why is it wrong to deceive someone? What if they are better off hearing a lie from your lips instead of the cold, hard, and brutal truth? Or what if they are in danger of harming themselves and you need to tell someone, but don’t inform the person in danger that ...

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...ad. Just as Hitler used his natural charisma to manipulate the masses of German to not only submit but to openly follow his ambitions to annihilate the entire Jewish population. Manipulation is the most hurtful type of deceit because the people we have manipulated feel used and abused by our apathy. Even if we do not realize we are manipulating someone we should take care to attempt to limit our manipulative tendencies.

Deception in itself is not a bad thing. As you can see deception is not as black and white as we would like to believe. It can be an amazing thing by promoting a child’s imagination or lightening the mood with a well-played trick. Or it could be destroy someone’s trust and end whatever relationship you had with them. In the end it is our intentions that can make deception good or bad whether we wish to encourage someone or unknowingly destroy them.