Truth hurts worse
Ken Woods
Issue date: 10/7/09 Section: Opinion
In all honesty, who wants to hear the truth? Tom Cruise said it best: "You can't handle the truth."
Honesty has been regarded as a venerable quality in society, but who really wants to hear it? In most cases, telling the truth is more harmful than lying.
From a very young age we all learn to lie, whether its to get ourselves out of trouble, to avoid hurting someone's feelings or to get something we want, we all lie and some do it very well.
While the psychological shackles of society will have us believe that everyone should be honest, the truth lies in the opposite. Nobody is honest and no one wants some one else to be completely honest with him or her. Think of a world in which everyone you encounter always told you the truth. That would be absolutely dreadful.
No one would have any friends or lasting relationships. If everyone told the truth we would all despise each other never get along. Think about your friendships and relationships: who is really completely honest with you? None of them are and the fact of the matter is that we deeply detest hearing the truth.
We build our egos over the years to defend against our true self. We are all deceptive and the truth is like a pin in our self-inflated balloon.
In most cases, people have an unrealistic heightened sense of themselves, constantly avoiding their faults and disadvantages. People are constantly finding ways to escape reality. Whether it's video games, television, movies or any other activity, we are constantly forgetting what is real and true.
So when someone tells us the truth it hurts, and in some cases hits at the core of your insecurities. Think about some of the conversations you have during the course of a day or some you may overhear. Are any of them genuine? I can go through an entire day and never have a genuine discussion with anyone. That's just sad.
It is hard to be a genuine person today. Think about how everyone says, "How are you doing?" You can bet all your money in the bank that 95 percent of the responses will be "good" or "fine." Most of the time that response is a lie. We just say that because we know no one is really interested in the truth and we don't really want to tell him or her the honest answer.
People don't just lie when they speak; they also lie through their appearance. Politicians are experienced liars, but we continue to elect them year after year. As a nation it seems that we like people to just tell us what we want to hear. The truth of the matter is that no one likes honesty.
Honesty has been regarded as a venerable quality in society, but who really wants to hear it? In most cases, telling the truth is more harmful than lying.
From a very young age we all learn to lie, whether its to get ourselves out of trouble, to avoid hurting someone's feelings or to get something we want, we all lie and some do it very well.
While the psychological shackles of society will have us believe that everyone should be honest, the truth lies in the opposite. Nobody is honest and no one wants some one else to be completely honest with him or her. Think of a world in which everyone you encounter always told you the truth. That would be absolutely dreadful.
No one would have any friends or lasting relationships. If everyone told the truth we would all despise each other never get along. Think about your friendships and relationships: who is really completely honest with you? None of them are and the fact of the matter is that we deeply detest hearing the truth.
We build our egos over the years to defend against our true self. We are all deceptive and the truth is like a pin in our self-inflated balloon.
In most cases, people have an unrealistic heightened sense of themselves, constantly avoiding their faults and disadvantages. People are constantly finding ways to escape reality. Whether it's video games, television, movies or any other activity, we are constantly forgetting what is real and true.
So when someone tells us the truth it hurts, and in some cases hits at the core of your insecurities. Think about some of the conversations you have during the course of a day or some you may overhear. Are any of them genuine? I can go through an entire day and never have a genuine discussion with anyone. That's just sad.
It is hard to be a genuine person today. Think about how everyone says, "How are you doing?" You can bet all your money in the bank that 95 percent of the responses will be "good" or "fine." Most of the time that response is a lie. We just say that because we know no one is really interested in the truth and we don't really want to tell him or her the honest answer.
People don't just lie when they speak; they also lie through their appearance. Politicians are experienced liars, but we continue to elect them year after year. As a nation it seems that we like people to just tell us what we want to hear. The truth of the matter is that no one likes honesty.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Jayn
Jane
posted 10/08/09 @ 11:07 PM CST
Thanks for posting this. You brought out some interesting points that I've been thinking about recently. I agree that society, as we know it, could not function without lying; but I believe that you put a very negative light on the truth. (Continued…)
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