Honesty - Short Story
There once was a dank little village, with a great tree in the middle.
Orbiting the tree like a host of tiny planets were children, playing,
skipping and generally frolicking. The village was set on an
inordinately steep hill. It had a maze of roads spiralling off to
various different districts. There were two major sections in the
village: the rich part and the poor part. The poor part was a huddle
of terraced houses packed with families of troglodytes, each house
with a pinhead of grass to call its own. Windows were boarded over,
gates were rusted and broken and, as for cars, there weren't any
because the ignoramus children had poached them all. But in the posh
part of town the houses were giant, with huge forests in their back
garden and huge expensive gleaming cars smothering the driveway. And
in this part of the village lived Tom.
Tom was privately educated, 15 year old boy who lived in the posh part
of town. By every definition of the word he was posh. But Tom was
desperately grasping for acceptance among the poor people. He was two
faced; he even puts on a fake common accent to sound "normal" although
he actually sounded like a brainless imbecile. He lied about where he
lived and said he was brought up in the ghettos of the East End,
raised by a family of gangsters. But when he spoke to his family, he
spoke clearly and concisely and his etiquette was impeccable. He had
to lie till his underwear caught fire to keep up his appearance. It's
a difficult life being duplicitous.
One day Tom woke up ready to go out and see his friends, He had slept
in his clothes; to be able to jump up out of bed and slide down his
slippery polished oak banister and through the front door as quick
lightning. He leaped on to his bike and set off to a wobbly start. He
skidded around the corner insanely quickly almost being hit by a
After reading chapter three Alternatives to Self-Disclosure I have concluded a benevolent lie is when someone manipulates the truth to benefit the situation, but not with the intentions of harming anyone in the process. This type of lie is better known as the harmless little white lie that is intended to protect those we tell them too. Learning about this topic pointed out how often it happens without notice, for example my little girl just lost her front teeth and asked me if she will look pretty for her school pictures. My reply was “You’re going to be the most beautiful girl in the world!” Don’t get me wrong, she is beautiful to me no matter what, but not to the world. I just want her to have self-confident in her smile. The most common
This essay by Sam Harris opened my eyes to new ideals about honesty and deception. I think it was a very well done piece and the author without a doubt was very deliberate in the rhetorical tools he chose to convince readers of his opinion about this controversial topic. Harris uses a particular sense of pathos to convince readers that what he is saying is right. For example, he gives the example that 10 percent of communication between spouses is deceptive (paragraph 24), and again when he asks, “What attitude could be more disrespectful of those we care about?” (paragraph 60). He purposely and subtly implements these claims which deliberately pull at the reader’s heart strings, making them more susceptible to his ideals.
In our society there excites a general feeling of distrust. We live in a culture of false advertising and as a result we don’t know who we can trust. People are constantly afraid that the government, corporations and media, are lying to them. Stephen L. Carter’s article The Insufficiency of Honesty, captured my attention because it addressed this issue at its core and left me contemplating the issue of integrity vs. honesty. Currently, there is an outcry for honesty. But in truth honesty is not enough and not quit what we are looking for. Honesty is often used to deceive, to induce harm and to avert blame. What people are really searching for is integrity. Carter’s article address the difference between honesty and integrity and how honesty can be used dishonestly. He also discussed how long held beliefs effect our perception of honesty. All of these factors affect how we view our society and add to our feelings of mistrust.
Webster’s Dictionary defines a lie as an intentionally false statement. However, defining a simple three-letter word is not as easy as it seems on the surface. Upon reading or hearing the word lie, people are instantly associated with a general feeling of negativity. Lying generally creates feelings of dishonesty, untrustworthiness, deceit, and betrayal. However, lying is one of the oldest human social practices. Erin Bryant explains in her essay “Real Lies, White Lies, and Gray Lies” that even though lying has a derogatory label, it is a very common social behavior used by a majority of people on a daily basis. It has been a subject of scrutiny through the millennia by philosophers such as St. Augustine, Aristotle, and Plato. Can lies also be seen as positive? Don’t lies contribute to maintaining the bedrock of most relationships? In his essay “Lies, Lies, Lies,” Paul Gray answers this question. “Most ‘little white lies’ belong here, well-intentioned deceptions designed to grease the gears of society. In this context people want to be fooled. No one expects and few would welcome, searing honesty at a dinner party”.
In the two readings, “ The insufficiency of honesty” author Stephan L. Carter and “What isn’t for sale?” by Michael J Sandle, These writings address the two issues in society. One being honesty and the other is giving up morals in order to obtain something. Both of these authors say society is giving up their morals in order to acquire what they want. Society will do anything and forget about honesty and morals. Markets are putting monetary value to items that shouldn’t have monetary value. People give up their morals in order to have these items.
Through out history people have been influenced by what they want to hear and the way a current trend is happening. The evolution of mankind has drifted towards a different society than what we where born to sustain. We are emotionally driven human beings that want to feel accepted by the rules of society. Sometimes an individual can confuse actions or emotions towards trying to fulfill the standards society has imposed. I have analyzed two articles that incorporate how a society reacts towards integrity as well as honesty and the belief that an individual in order to be a part of society one must comply with the standards that are set. As I began to interpret what Stephen L. Carter explained in “The Insufficiency of Honesty” I examined they
When Thomas awakes the next morning it takes him a little until he is fully conscious and remembers that he had to complete his plan by taking the trunk to the station. Before Thomas could finish packing up his clothes
Healthcare professions have codes of conduct and ethics that address the issue of honesty and trust in relation to patient encounters yet truth-telling (or being honest) versus deception (or being dishonest) has been identified as an ethical issue in hospitals, particularly about diagnosis and prognosis disclosures. Dossa (2010) defines being honest or telling the truth as relating the facts as one knows them. Furthermore, Dossa (2010) states that deception can be an act of dishonesty but also can be without lies. In other words, forms of deception include not giving any information, not giving information of the truth, withholding information, selecting what information to give and not give, and giving vague information.
You pull up to the second window at the McDonalds’s drive-through to pick up the shake you just ordered and paid for, and the person working there hands you a huge bag of food while asking you if this is what you ordered. Do you A: Answer “Yes” and take the food or B: Answer “No” and tell him/her that you only paid for a shake? Yes this really did happen to me. What did I do? Believe it or not, I did the honest thing and gave the food back. But the real question is what would a majority of American’s youth do in a similar situation. There are two potentially dishonest acts in this situation, lying and stealing. In my opinion most high school kids are not above lying and/or stealing. The reason this is true is simply that many of today’s parents are not above lying and/or stealing. So after observing people that hold a high place of respect do things unmoral like this, their conscience says to itself, “Okay, lying and/or stealing is not really that bad, and is acceptable to my parents.” A majority of Americans youth today are morally confused, due to the un-honorable actions of their parents.
When is lying okay? According to the article, “Honestly, Tell the Truth,” by Barbara Billinger argues that lying is not okay and that you should tell the truth, no matter what situation you’re in. I agree with the author Barbara explains to us that we should always tell the truth and not lie in anyway, and to always be honest.
Honesty is a characteristic that everyone should possess. However, being honest is a difficult task for many people. Living honestly means allowing a person’s true self to be exposed to others. Honesty is considered owning up to one’s wrongdoings and not lying, cheating, or stealing. Being honest is a trait that many people believe is obsolete. Even though every person interprets honesty differently, it all stems back to telling the truth. Being honest allows a person to earn respect from their peers. Honesty is allowing oneself to be completely exposed by being truthful.
Honesty in conduct is the foundation of every successful business organization. The substratum of any organization depends upon the level of morality followed by the elements that run that organization. Honest conduct requires us to practice and preach those ideologies that will further strengthen the level of trust people place upon us. Honesty in its narrowest form is the act of telling the truth, but honesty in conduct is much more than that. Honest conduct requires earnestness, no act of misleading, deviousness or betrayal. What’s most important is the loyalty to the organization and the act of good faith.
As an undergrad student in her third year of school, I get asked a lot what I want to do with my future. And if I do not answer it with enough insight or evidence that I know what I am doing, then I feel like I look like a complete idiot to most. What I tell people is that I have a hunger for counseling; I want to be able to give people meaningful advice on their daily lives, their personal problems, and their personal thoughts. What is important to me is that I learn to be personable to everyone around me. I want to be expressively honest, yet a constructive influence on my clients, my friends, and my family’s life.
Morality just by itself be interpreted in few ways, one way is right or wrong. Another way can be quality or character. whereas to honesty it only has one true meaning and that’s being truthful , but when we put these words together “ the morality of honesty ’’ it tells us more than just a meaning , it makes us ask whether or not the quality we have within ourselves as a human beings is truly honest or not . In this following paper I will be arguing AGAINST about truth telling. We as human beings we often tend to do the right things not because we think it’s right or even we think there’s such a thing as right or wrong, but because we’re told its right. This goes same with truth telling, our society is filled with opinion it’s almost impossible to bring everyone on the same table, because everyone is so caught up in their way of thinking and that can make us to become defensive to even hear other peoples saying. I believe this ethical issue is important for discussion because majority of people see only one side of this issue. “The right side’’ when taking a stand in something we have to see both sides of the issue. By seeing both sides we can try to come with good solution, as our consequences really matters in the end.
A story has numerous important effects in our daily lives. It has been one of the most effective source of inspiration know to man. In this I would like to tell you about the something which was taught to me in childhood. “Behavior” the word defined as “a person who was well treated to represents themselves to others. This thing is generally comes from our family; the one quote was I always remember “Telling a lie and boast may end up in trouble”. When I tell lie to someone this quote comes into my mind. I can still remember when I was six year old and whenever I had made any mischief by saying a lie to family, my grandmother used to tell this story in brief.