Reading Response

Reading Response

The use of words to mislead or conceal will just earn distrust and disrespect from the people. The different ways people lie are mainly to keep peace or to keep from losing respect and trust. "Lies designed to shelter the liar from possible blame or pain; lies (or so it is rationalized) designed to keep trouble at bay without hurting anyone." Many people tell lies to keep the truth from getting out. This only causes hostility from the people these lies are told to. "Whenever I lie so that someone won't disapprove of me or think less of me," (p. 137) one person says from the article.

One way of lying that she describes is a social lie. These are lies that save people from embarrassment or pain. Stating that someone looks beautiful that day when maybe they do not look well may boost their spirit to carry out the day feeling a bit better. Another type of lie is peacekeeping lies, which are generally told to keep the peace between two who are having a dispute. Or just to avoid dispute or argument. Protective lies are a different type of lie that gets people to do the right thing in order to keep human values. You would use this type of lie to the people you love or trust. The last type of lie that Judith talks about is trust-keeping lies. These lies are told when people have a secret to keep from other people. One person says something to his or her friends and that person lies to other people to keep the truth from getting out. I do lie sometimes; everyone does it, so you can say that lying is a normal thing people do.

There are many examples from the chapter that tells the reader how they feel about lying. Some people find social lying acceptable and necessary. Other people think that it would consider them a coward if telling someone a lie to hide, the important, but difficult truths. But to me just being able to avoid something or keep to others from being hurt or feeling bad is in some way a good thing. An instance of me doing this was when my friend bought a pair of bear slippers and he asked me how they were, I said "ok," but I said that to keep him from feeling like he had made a bad purchase.

Using other types of wording to keep people from knowing the truth or to keep knowledge is to use a language called "Doublespeak". "This language is designed to give an air of importance to people, situations, or things that would not normally be considered important; to make the simple seem complex"(p. 140). To be able to use doublespeak clearly one must have a clear head. It takes an intelligent person to put words together this way and not seem suspicious.

A euphemism is used to express doublespeak. It is a type of language that one would substitute wording in for something that would seem hurtful or bring shame to a person in order to make their saying more appealing. People use doublespeak