Sorry to steal a line from an old Billy Joel song, but it is true … honesty is a vanishing commodity. I recently had someone apologize for being so honest, and it got me wondering … can we really be too honest? And why is honesty something that everyone says they cherish until it is given to them as a gift?
It seems in this world we all try to be Politically Correct (PC) and end up being Emotionally Incorrect. When we are being PC we are trying to “minimize offense” which seems to imply that we are attempting to minimize honesty. And why are we attempting to minimize honesty?
Well, in today’s world it seems that many conversations have an agenda, and that agenda is the main focus of the words and images we use in the conversation. So we custom-craft our words so as to forward our agenda and “minimize offense” to the other party … because being offensive would hurt our agenda.
What would the world look like if we all had the internal courage to say the truth while forwarding our agenda? What does that internal courage look like? Are other people’s points of view, emotional baggage and overarching power enough to keep our tounges still from saying the truth and having that internal courage?
In fact, when someone does speak the truth, damned be the consequences, we usually applaud that person for having courage and for saying what everyone else was afraid to say: And in that saying … in that truth ... lies power. Being afraid of telling the truth is being afraid of … everything.
So I say tell the truth, be clear in your vision … tell the truth without directly harming others … but tell the truth and see what you get in return.
As Clarence Darrow said “Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coattails.”
See you on the wire
Steven
No comments:
Post a Comment