Response to Stephanie Ericsson's The Ways We Lie

                In The Ways We Lie, Stephanie Ericsson categorizes some of the most common ways to lie. These include both the lies we tell other people and the ones we tell ourselves. The ones she includes are the white lie, facades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and clichés, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissal and delusion. She asks the question of which lies are actually okay to tell. When is it okay to lie? Some of the lies we tell may seem harmless in the heat of the moment, but in the long term, will they be justified?

                I agree with the way Ericsson categorizes the lies we tell. She explains each lie very thoroughly and even includes a quote to back them up. If I could add in another lie, it would be plagiarism. Plagiarism is when a person takes someone else’s work out of context and calls it their own. This lie is very harmful to both the victim and the person claiming someone else’s work, because the victim loses their credibility to someone else, and the liar is depicted as, well, a liar. It really doesn’t get worse than that.

                Ericsson wrote this essay to tell all the ways we lie. Other than explaining each lie, she also talks about why we do it, and the thought process behind the decision that lying would be better than telling the truth. The purpose is to make the reader wonder about the world we live in. If so many people are lying, who’s to tell what a lie is and what is not anymore? What kind of world is it if all we do is lie? What if our world unto itself is a lie? Which lie should we believe next? These sorts of questions make the reader wonder when exactly it was that we have become so dependent on lying.

                Lying is a case by case situation. You need to consider the consequences of your lies. If your lie affects too many people, it can become extremely messy. If you’re the only one who suffers, it becomes okay to lie. If you’re the only one benefitting from it, it’s still okay. But it should never be the case that you benefit and others lose. That’s how I feel.