The Need for Honesty on a Dishonest net
In most blogs you will find family pictures and personal diaries. Maybe there might be poetry or baseball scores or as much as the writer can find out about Mary Tyler Moore. This is not one of those blogs. In this blog I will attempt to tell the truth.
Well now I’ve done it. What is truth? Why do I think I know more about truth than everyone else? Why do I have such a desperate need to tell the truth? And who the hell do I think I am?
What is truth? It is easier to say what truth is not. Truth is not lies. Truth is not belief either. Truth is not opinion, no matter how heart felt. Truth is not tradition. Truth is not popular. (or unpopular) Truth is not consensus. Truth has no agenda. The Truth is not fear. Truth does not shout. The truth is not mostly right. The truth is not sort of like that. Truth rarely comes from an angry person’s mouth. Nor does truth regularly issue from the mouth of a zealot.
I do not know that I know more about truth than everyone else. But I do know, I want to know more about truth than most people. I am tired of hearing from people who do not love truth. All I am is a man who loves truth and wants to see more of it on the world wide web.
If I tell John that Beverly is cheating on him, it better not be because I heard it somewhere or because I thought I saw her with someone else. If Beverly has not cheated on John, I am just hurting the both of them. Don't repeat what other people say. Who knows why they said it. Maybe they want to break them up. Don't tell people what you thought you saw. If you did not clearly see her face, you didn't see her. If they weren't making out, a girl can be out in public with a guy. This isn't the middle ages. And do you even know what all her brothers look like? If you are going to say something important, make sure it is true. Save the opinions and guesses for discussing music and fashion.
I hope, most of us know saying black people are all criminals in wrong. I hope people know that saying women are stupid is hurtful. These vile lies cause life long suffering to millions. But all untruth hurts people. Bad medical advice kills people. Bad handyman advice can destroy your home. Bad advice can kill a technology that we need, set races and religions against each other, end marriages, and destroy a childhood. Wrong opinions can lead an entire country down the wrong path for ten or twenty years. All untruth hurts people.
I can not claim I will always tell the truth. Untruth is more than lies. I can truly believe things that are wrong. I can be misinformed. But I can try as hard as I can to tell the truth. I can keep mere opinions out of my blog. I can check my facts. I can limit myself to topics I know something about.
I make a promise. If I make any statement that you can prove is wrong, I will remove it. If it is a big enough mistake, I will print an apology. You can not dedicate yourself to truth if you can not admit you were wrong.
Here is a list of what I think you need to do to tell the truth.
1. Don’t lie
2. Be aware of your bias views and prejudice and try to get rid of them.
3. Don't talk about what you don't understand.
4. Don’t just repeat what other people say and hope that they got it right
5. Check your facts.
6. If you find yourself getting emotional, either calm down or stop talking.
7. Be Polite. Don't resort to swearing. Don't be condescending.
8. Don’t take shortcuts you don’t have to.
9. Don't assume the listener knows something.
10. Don’t make approximations you don’t have to
11. Be careful how you word something. Is there a better word? Does the word lead to confusion? Are you using it correctly?
12. If you want to state your opinion, state your opinion. But state it as your opinion. And make sure it is clear it is only your opinion. Do Not State It As Fact.
13. If you feel certain of something, but can not find confirmation and still want to use it. State your lack of confirmation.
14. If you are only fairly certain of something, but can not find confirmation-
State your lack of confirmation and your uncertainty.
15. Remember that you might be wrong.
16. Be prepared to admit you are wrong, when you realize that you are.
17. Admit you were wrong.
18. Look over you work. Did you say everything you needed to say? Stop talking. The longer you go on, the more likely you are to lose focus and drift into non-truth.
Occasionally I may seem to be repeating myself with something I said in another blog. This because I don't want any one blog to be too long. I do not want to split my focus by talking about too many aspects of the topic at once. To allow each blog to stand on its own, I will have to repeat some things. I plan to write a blog titled, "How To Tell The Truth." I'm going to start it with the list above and go into why I choose each step in more detail. Many people won't need or want the explanations so I put them in a different blog. Usually the repetitions will be short and it will be obvious when I get to the new stuff. Just skip ahead a bit if you have to. There really is something new being said
I am Ivan, and as far as I know, this is the truth.
