Where do you stand on total honesty? It seems to me some things are better left unsaid, if only to keep the peace.
-Keepin' it on the Down Low
Dear keeping,
Honesty has an amazing ability to work equally for good or evil. If one is honest with his opinions, he or she is more able to influence others and create the change they seek. But like most things in life, going at it from the wrong angle is going to make a worse mess than you started with. Take for example the truth that an acquaintance has bad breath. You can present this fact in about a million different ways. Saying "I just wanted to give you a heads up, you've got a little mouth stink going on, want some gum?" stands a better chance of clearing the air without hurting anyone's feelings, whereas "Christ! Did a cat shit in your mouth as you slept!?!" is going to hurt someone's feelings. Especially if they think eating cat shit is a bad thing. If you can't figure out a nice way to be honest it might be best to keep it to yourself or get someone who doesn't care about things like feelings to take care of it.
Another great property of honesty is its ability to transfer one person's feelings of guilt onto another's shoulders. I've used romantic relationship variables as this is where people most often transfer guilt.
I know that chart seems rather bleak, but since the inciting event was such a colosally bad decision, there's really no where to go but down. Thus avoiding step one is the only way to come out ahead. And let's be honest, your physics teacher really isn't that into you anyway.
As for total honesty, I don't think you could even find that in a laboratory setting.
Honestly trying to help,
Jason Adair the Unlicensed Therapist
2 comments:
To be totally honest with you, I think people can be totally honest.
What people are you talking about? Are they sociopaths? I'm going to need to see your research to verify your claim.
Jason Adair the Unlicensed Therapist
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