The Lies We Tell

We’re a society of liars. Don’t believe me? We tell lies on a daily basis. Your preschooler shows the picture he drew at school and you tell him it’s beautiful, even though you’re not sure what it is. Your friend shows off her new hair style and you tell her it looks great, even though it doesn’t.

They’re polite lies, perhaps, but lies nonetheless. But they’re not the only lies we tell. Ready for some more?

A bald-faced, or barefaced lie is a shameless lie that is undisguised. It can be so audacious that a person might actually believe it to be true.

A big lie is one that tries to trick the victim into believing something, well, big. If common sense is used this lie doesn’t usually hold water, but if it’s of sufficient magnitude it may succeed.

A black lie is callous and selfish. The worst are harmful to others and the sole purpose is gain something we want at someone else’s expense.

A gray lie is reciprocal lie. It’s told partly to help others and partly to help ourselves. The idea is for you to lie for a friend to help them out of a tight spot, and they’ll do the same for you.

An honest lie isn’t meant to misinform, the person telling it doesn’t realize their information is false. Technically, it’s not really a lie because there’s no intent to deceive.

A jocose lie is intended to be taken as a joke. It’s considered to be humorous, as in storytelling where the narrator insists the story is the absolute truth.

Lying by omission is when important information is left out of an explanation. The person tells most of the truth, but leaves out a few pertinent facts.

A noble lie is told to maintain law, order, and safety. While it might cause friction if discovered, it’s meant to be beneficial to all.

A pathological liar tells compulsive lies without a clear motive. It’s often a symptom of an underlying mental health condition. The person may be aware they’re lying, but more often believe they’re telling the truth, unaware they’re relating fantasies.

A red lie is driven by the motive to harm others even if it means harming yourself. It’s about spite and revenge. When we are angry at others, when we feel a sense of betrayal, we may tell a red lie to seek what we perceive as justice.

Which brings us back to polite lies:
“Oh, I love that band!” – when you don’t.
“I don’t mind.” – when you do.
“I can’t help it…” – when you can.
“It’s okay!” — when it’s not.

A polite lie, or white lie, is very common in our society and is often praised as an essential tool in communication. Of all the lies we tell, it’s the most harmless and often told in order to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. Sometimes people can be upset by the truth, especially when it’s something they don’t want to hear.

So … how many different kinds of lies have you told today?

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Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever – 0 words
Blog Posts – 995+0+580+1180= 2,755
Total = 2,755

It was not a good week, writing wise. I had some personal stuff going on that kind of over-rode everything else. It’s not going to go away, but I’m dealing.

Editing:

No editing, for much the same reason as above.

What I’m Reading:

After finishing Shelter in Place, I seemed to have slid back into a Nora Roberts mood reading the Obsession, the Liar, and Under Currents one right after the other.

I tried to pace myself with White Wolf Mate, by Anastasia Wilde, but I kinda zipped through it and I’ve started Tiger Mate, which is the third of the Silverlake Shifters boxed set.

Goals

Obviously meeting my goals was kind of a bust last week; hopefully I’ll do better this week.

This Week’s Goals

1. Finish the edits on Blood Ties.
2. Finish the index cards for DIF or find a new way to outline.
3. Come up with a new non-fiction series for Wednesday.
4. Crochet or read as needed for breaks.

Let’s hope this week is better than the last.