You’re a Liar
I guess I never really considered how much of a liar I am until reading Po Bronson’s essay “Learning to Lie”. I like to believe I am one of the most honest, and trustworthy teenagers when it comes to lying to my parents. I always tell them exactly where I’m going, what I’ll be doing, and who I’ll be doing it with. I figure by telling them every single detail, I can con them into trusting me and giving me permission to do said activity.
I never knew THAT was lying….
Po Bronson has a different definition of lying than most people, but is his more accurate? Could be so. According to him, anything that deviates, in the littlest way, from the truth is lying.
Now my definition of lying is more along the lines of I tell you what I’m going to do, but I do the opposite. For example, “Mom, I am going to (insert name here)’s house!” She says okay. I leave the house change clothes and go to a party. So in lieu of that chaos, I tell my mother exactly where I am going in hopes she’ll let me do it because I was honest with her.
“In the thesaurus, the antonym of honesty is lying, and the opposite of arguing is agreeing. But in the minds of teenagers, that’s not how it works. Really, to an adolescent, arguing is the opposite of lying.”
What is Bronson trying to say?
Po Bronson is trying to explain that in the minds of people like me, teenagers, there are only two ways to go about a situation in which you brought upon yourself, either lie or argue that whatever you did was not lying, but simply a way around the truth. Bronson then goes on to say that teenagers only tell the truth because either they know they won’t get away with the lie, or because they feel obligated to, because they think that if they tell their parents the truth when they plan to do something they know their parents will disapprove of, they will say it is okay.
Now, I am probably the biggest offender of trying to get away with things by being honest, and while Bronson’s point is lucid, I must disagree. Do I think it’s lying? I suppose in a way it is. But I think this “lie” doesn’t even so much as fit his very own definition. I believe it is more of a scheme rather than a lie. By partaking in this scheme you are not misleading your parents, you are not leaving out any details, but most importantly you are not working your way around the truth in any way. And that last point right there, I believe, is the definition of a lie.
On the other hand, I do not support the idea of lying in order to avoid an argument. No matter what your reasoning behind it is, it is a lie. Because you are avoiding the truth. Sure, it is probably the easiest way of steering clear of an argument potentially leading to consequence, but it is still a lie. The kind of lying I do not and will not support in any way.
Po Bronson’s essay taught me that everyone’s a liar. Think about it! We all lie more than once a day without even realizing it. You’ve lied since you could talk. While some of the ideas he brought attention to I did not completely support, his article opened my eyes to the amount of lies one person, of any age, tells in one day. It sounds crazy, I know. But it’s true! And I sincerely believe that if we all, as a society, come to realize that, we could fix this generation full of liars.
