Deception: The Unseen Cancer of American Culture

John Ruskin once said, “The essence of lying is in deception, not in words”. With regards to what Ruskin talks about, deception is an act that Americans have lovingly embraced. It has been so embraced that we don 't even know if we are deceiving or being deceived. Stephanie Ericsson’s essay, “The Ways We Lie”, claims that “our acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible as water is to fish” (343). In a sense, the relation between Ruskin’s quote and Ericsson’s claim is they both describe the current state of the American culture. The modern American culture is full of deceit and lies whether it’s to protect someone or hide a secret. And yet, we still accept

Ericsson explains that dismissal is a type of lie you do to yourself in which you ignore feelings, perceptions or even the raw facts (341). Americans use the act of dismissal all the time and most recently affected the recent United States recession. One of the primary reasons the economy tanked was because of American housing bubble. Many Americans saw it as an opportunity to make more money but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Many lost their homes and caused a massive shake up in the global economy. This is all because of one reason, Americans simply dismissed the fact they could not pay for the houses and caused most Americans the place they call home. In summary, if Americans did not dismiss the fact they couldn’t pay for their houses the recession would have been a little lighter than it was.

In the same vein, the housing bubble is similar to Michael Lewis’ “Liar’s Poker” in which, two of Lewis’ co-workers gamble and bluff their way to win the game (653-657). “Liar’s Poker” is a great personification of how Wall Street works. Most stockbrokers gamble and bluff their way through economic situations however, gambling and bluffing can only get you so far. Alternatively the same is said about