James McAuley
Professor Young
ENGW 1101 3G
February 1st, 2016
Is Lying Permissible?
A lie is a deceptive statement meant to hide the truth from the person who the lie is transmitted to. Normally, lying is frowned upon in society, while honesty is valued. However, this does not mean that lying isn’t permissible in certain situations. There are numerous situations where lying is a beneficial thing to do, and in fact can make someone’s day a little bit better. To provide an example for this, I’ll reminisce about a time two weeks ago, when my brother tried to cook. I use the word tried, because frankly, what he made could barely be considered food. However, I didn’t care about how bad his food was. So, instead, I ate what was supposed to pass for chicken pot pie. I ignored the fact that the crust was burned, I choked down the dry and tasteless chicken, and I scooped up the still-frozen peas (I still have no idea, for the life of me, how the peas were possibly frozen when the rest of the dish was way too overdone). After I tried it, I convinced my brother that it was good, and suggested just one or two things to improve, so that his next attempt at chicken pot pie would be slightly more edible. From what I have heard from my parents, he is trying again sometime this next week. And so, anyone can see, that lying was beneficial in this situation. If I told my brother the truth, that the food he made was something I would hesitate to feed to a starving animal, he would have lost hope and stopped cooking, at least for a little while. He would lose what little self-confidence he has left, and would just give up. However, the lie that I liked the dish provided him with enough confidence to try and try again, and get better at cooking each time. He’s almost 24 years old, it's about time he learned how to cook. So, in this situation, lying was not only permissible, but it's beneficial, because in a world like ours, sometimes the ugly truth needs to be hidden from people for their own good.
James, you have an awesome way of engaging the reader. There were places I laughed out loud. Please continue writing this authentically.
ReplyDeleteYour last line of your essay was powerful! I wonder though how Henry relates to this line. What were the circumstances that made it necessary for slaves or people of color to lie?
Using your argument, who did Henry's lie benefit?
I look forward to your response.
-Prof. Young