Dolores Umbridge is perhaps one of the most irritating and annoying characters that has been brought to my attention. Although there is one little gem that can be gained from her fictional existence. We must not tell lies. But if we, unlike Harry Potter, do not have that message inscribed into the back of our hand; can we keep our lies in check?
I thought it would be interesting to count my lies as an experiment of sorts. I don’t consider myself a chronic liar but I indulge in the odd white lie here and there. Numerous times I tried to count how many times I lied in a day and failed miserably. I thought it would be easy thing to do, but a day would pass and I wouldn’t have counted any. The reason it was so difficult was that trying to count my lies made me more aware of lying and therefore stopped me from doing it. Good technique, that.
There are many different forms of lying. There’s good old exaggeration, which is not considered to really be lying. Exaggeration is an excellent form of making yourself or a situation sound a wee bit better or more dramatic. When used effectively it can do wonders, but when overused, no one will take your stories seriously. Many lie to get out of something. Whether that be a previous commitment, an assignment, a work shift – whatever. This is most commonly seen in a schooling situation when students coherently fib their way out of deadlines.
There’s protective lying – when someone asks us a question and we know that the answer would hurt them too much, so we alter the ‘truth’. The opposite of this is deceitful lying, when one intentionally makes up balderdash to cause someone grief. Then finally is the aforementioned white lie which is defined as a ‘lie with good intentions’. Similar to the protective lie, yet on a smaller scale, the white lie is used when perhaps you just don’t want someone to know the 100% true story. It is a lie which usually goes without consequence.
Far too much lying exists in this world. I’m not going to defend lying, but sometimes there’s not much else you can do. It can become quite the tricky situation when a friend has told you a secret. When another person questions you on the first friend’s secret, you have to lie in order to keep your friend’s trust. You don’t have to lie, but we all know that if someone says, “I can’t tell you that,” it just makes us want to know it more. Also, when one wishes to keep something personal private what else is there to do but lie?
I’m not justifying lying, I just think that sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between lies and secrets. I do think the world would be a better place if everyone just bloody told the truth but I also think everyone has a right to their own secrets. There is also the opposite end of the spectrum of too much honesty. I am guiltier of this rather than lying as I regularly forget to think about my words. But lying is a part of being human, so at times it’s going to be inevitable.
Lying is all around us. Do you lie? Which mould do you fit in? I sometimes wonder, while a simple white lie or exaggeration is seen as okay, every time we don’t tell the truth, does that make us a liar?
Read more by Lauren
I thought it would be interesting to count my lies as an experiment of sorts. I don’t consider myself a chronic liar but I indulge in the odd white lie here and there. Numerous times I tried to count how many times I lied in a day and failed miserably. I thought it would be easy thing to do, but a day would pass and I wouldn’t have counted any. The reason it was so difficult was that trying to count my lies made me more aware of lying and therefore stopped me from doing it. Good technique, that.
There are many different forms of lying. There’s good old exaggeration, which is not considered to really be lying. Exaggeration is an excellent form of making yourself or a situation sound a wee bit better or more dramatic. When used effectively it can do wonders, but when overused, no one will take your stories seriously. Many lie to get out of something. Whether that be a previous commitment, an assignment, a work shift – whatever. This is most commonly seen in a schooling situation when students coherently fib their way out of deadlines.
There’s protective lying – when someone asks us a question and we know that the answer would hurt them too much, so we alter the ‘truth’. The opposite of this is deceitful lying, when one intentionally makes up balderdash to cause someone grief. Then finally is the aforementioned white lie which is defined as a ‘lie with good intentions’. Similar to the protective lie, yet on a smaller scale, the white lie is used when perhaps you just don’t want someone to know the 100% true story. It is a lie which usually goes without consequence.
Far too much lying exists in this world. I’m not going to defend lying, but sometimes there’s not much else you can do. It can become quite the tricky situation when a friend has told you a secret. When another person questions you on the first friend’s secret, you have to lie in order to keep your friend’s trust. You don’t have to lie, but we all know that if someone says, “I can’t tell you that,” it just makes us want to know it more. Also, when one wishes to keep something personal private what else is there to do but lie?
I’m not justifying lying, I just think that sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between lies and secrets. I do think the world would be a better place if everyone just bloody told the truth but I also think everyone has a right to their own secrets. There is also the opposite end of the spectrum of too much honesty. I am guiltier of this rather than lying as I regularly forget to think about my words. But lying is a part of being human, so at times it’s going to be inevitable.
Lying is all around us. Do you lie? Which mould do you fit in? I sometimes wonder, while a simple white lie or exaggeration is seen as okay, every time we don’t tell the truth, does that make us a liar?
Read more by Lauren
