Kanye is not just anyone. He is a very public figure with a huge platform and the ear of former Presidents. He is therefore fair game, whatever his mental condition is.
Yes, kind lies are still lies. Civilized society would likely be impossible without some measure of lying. You don't really want to tell your dinner host that your…
Kanye is not just anyone. He is a very public figure with a huge platform and the ear of former Presidents. He is therefore fair game, whatever his mental condition is.
Yes, kind lies are still lies. Civilized society would likely be impossible without some measure of lying. You don't really want to tell your dinner host that your dinner made you want to puke.
But there are limits. You don't want your doctor to refrain from telling you that you are on the verge of liver failure to avoid upsetting you. You want to be told to cut out the booze. Nor do you want to tell children that they all are "champions" because you then cheapen the will to succeed. If truth telling is equated to "violence," we will, as a culture, become delusional and therefore much weaker. Yet that is precisely what is happening now in Anglophone cultures.
As you also point out, lying about reality is also a way of signaling "belonging" to a tribe or ideology. Humans are profoundly mimetic, and ostracism for failure to adhere to the fictions of an ideology is a central method of achieving group cohesion through scapegoating.
In other words, it takes quite a bit of courage--and perhaps an independent income--to speak the truth. But I personally feel that a minority of people are just wired that way and damn the consequences. There are a few of these people who become leaders. But many will just suffer because the majority could care less about the truth--they just want approval. And the majority will punish. Maybe "the truth shall set you free," but not always in a good way.
"You don't want your doctor to refrain from telling you that you are on the verge of liver failure to avoid upsetting you. You want to be told to cut out the booze."
Exactly. Or rather, they may *not* want to be told to cut out the booze. But the right thing to do, the kind thing to do, is to tell them anyway. True kindness is a willingness to make an uncomfortable choice, perhaps even a choice that is detrimental to us in some way, because it's better for the person/people we're being kind to.
This has always taken courage. But it's such a shame that it takes so *much* courage nowadays.
Kanye is not just anyone. He is a very public figure with a huge platform and the ear of former Presidents. He is therefore fair game, whatever his mental condition is.
Yes, kind lies are still lies. Civilized society would likely be impossible without some measure of lying. You don't really want to tell your dinner host that your dinner made you want to puke.
But there are limits. You don't want your doctor to refrain from telling you that you are on the verge of liver failure to avoid upsetting you. You want to be told to cut out the booze. Nor do you want to tell children that they all are "champions" because you then cheapen the will to succeed. If truth telling is equated to "violence," we will, as a culture, become delusional and therefore much weaker. Yet that is precisely what is happening now in Anglophone cultures.
As you also point out, lying about reality is also a way of signaling "belonging" to a tribe or ideology. Humans are profoundly mimetic, and ostracism for failure to adhere to the fictions of an ideology is a central method of achieving group cohesion through scapegoating.
In other words, it takes quite a bit of courage--and perhaps an independent income--to speak the truth. But I personally feel that a minority of people are just wired that way and damn the consequences. There are a few of these people who become leaders. But many will just suffer because the majority could care less about the truth--they just want approval. And the majority will punish. Maybe "the truth shall set you free," but not always in a good way.
"You don't want your doctor to refrain from telling you that you are on the verge of liver failure to avoid upsetting you. You want to be told to cut out the booze."
Exactly. Or rather, they may *not* want to be told to cut out the booze. But the right thing to do, the kind thing to do, is to tell them anyway. True kindness is a willingness to make an uncomfortable choice, perhaps even a choice that is detrimental to us in some way, because it's better for the person/people we're being kind to.
This has always taken courage. But it's such a shame that it takes so *much* courage nowadays.
You have a friend on chemo. She is in her early 20s and looks 90. "I look terrible, don't I." Truth would be cruelty.
"Oh yeah, you look half dead. It disgusts me to glance in your direction."
No. You lie.