The Boy Who Cried "Wolf"

Hi, I'm James Carmen Daniels, but you can call me Jimmy! Or not, since this isn't a dialogue. Anywho, I will be talking about childhood stories and lying. Enjoy (or don't, I don't really care).

     As a child, my mom always read me a handful of stories before bed, like Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast. But the one that I always looked forward to was The Boy Who Cried "Wolf". I liked the story because of its surprising (and rather unpleasant) ending. It wasn't this "happily ever-after" ending; it was a shocking one. 

    As I grew older, I began to question the true moral of the story. So, it's clear that the boy continues to cry "Wolf" for the fun of it, despite the reaction being fairly predictable. But the moral is a bit blurred. It can't be "don't lie" because it obviously worked the first time. Therefore, an appropriate moral of the story would be "don't overuse the same lie; be creative". For instance, maybe he should've cried "LION!" to spice it up a bit. Nonetheless, you may argue that the townspeople would still ignore such a ridiculous statement, but I would argue that the lie is just different enough to spark at least a couple townspeople. Maybe they would set up a rotational schedule where some townspeople would check every time.

Since we're on the topic of lying, here is a liar (who is holding up COVID relief payments in order to insure corporation payout before working class survival).

    I don't think lying is a good thing at all...but it is pretty useful. The boy in "The Boy Who Cried "Wolf" lied in a very useless manner, though. He just wanted to see the townspeople reaction over and over. Thus, he kind of deserved what came to him due to his repetitive nature and lack of creativity. Lying can come in handy though. If, for example, you forget to turn an assignment in on time, you can simply say "my Wi-Fi wasn't working" and get away with it. Due to the lack of hyper-advanced technology and time, the teacher won't actually be able to tell if your Wi-Fi wasn't working, so he/she will probably give you the benefit of the doubt (unless the teacher is a math teacher). So let's take a closer examination on what your lie did: it saved you a grade, it bought you time to improve your assignment, and you paid no expense (except the scarring moral-bankruptcy you instilled within yourself that may crescendo into bigger long-term communication problems). We can get all into how the perception connects with the definition of lying and what really constructs a "lie" (for instance, if one person is saying something that is not true but that he/she perceives it to be, is he/she lying?).

    In short, lie sometimes. Like if it's pretty evident that lying is a win situation for all, then lie. Now, here's a Louis C.K. clip on lying that I found pretty funny (I do not, however, endorse this man but I do believe that the art and artist should be separated).Click on this -->Lying!