Honesty, Integrity, and Lies Synthesis Essay Though often times revealing the truth may cause more damage than good, it is only rarely true. Rather than achieving what is intended, all lies regardless of the size, create conflicts which in return result in irresolvable consequences like permanent distrust and an inability to sustain relationships. How would man live if he were only told lies and little truth? No matter the reason for lying, it is not one’s right to take away the truth from the other and act upon assumption. As shown in the case of a sergeant in charge who acted to spare the others’ feelings, thought acted with good intentions nevertheless did so upon assumption. When his soldier was killed in combat, the sergeant recorded …show more content…
In this way, he had lied selfishly. His lies benefitted only himself, allowing him to move on with his life believing he had done a good deed, when in fact he had caused the family the pain of wishing for something that never came. That day, he became a thief, not of property or jewels, but something more valuable: the truth. The truth is entitled to all who hear it, and when one is dishonest, one takes away that right (2). Critics argue that while lies can be told selfishly, the truth can also do the same. The example Carter uses in his article, “The Insufficiency of Honesty, “ is of a man who confesses unfaithfulness, thirty-five years prior, to his wife on his deathbed. The man says, “dishonesty was killing his spirit,” (5). Carter argues that though the man was honest to his wife, he did it out of selfish reasons, being unable to bear the thought of carrying an unrepented sin to his death, ultimately leaving his wife to question her marriage and cope with the news by herself (5). On the surface, the reader can assume that, through this allegory, honesty is not