On Honesty

I've been reading Atlas Shrugged a helluva lot recently, so that explains a slighty-longer-than-a-week wait for this post. Hopefully I haven't been keeping anyone from doing anything productive. Like reading opinionated blogs run by egocentric teenagers. Don't wanna mess that up.

I might have an objectivist-themed memo up sometime in two weeks. My birthday's this Sunday, so I'm pretty pumped. Oh, if you see me or talk to me through the electronodes, don't wish me a Happy Birthday on Sunday. Do it Saturday, or don't do it at all. Because if you wish me a happy birthday on Sunday, I might not have had enough time to make it happy. I might not be prepared for a happy birthday. Just do it Saturday, so I can be like, "Okay, Jane Shepard wants me to have a happy birthday tomorrow, will do."

Also, I like seeing the chain reaction from idiots who don't bother to check its my birthday before wishing me a happy one. Well, that's not fair. I do it too. Actually, it is fair, I'm just calling myself an idiot as well.

TOO MUCH TIME HAS BEEN SPENT ON PRE-TOPIC STUFF.

Anyway, honesty. Honesty was one of those pillars of childhood which taught us never, ever to lie in order to be a good person. Unsurprisingly, like most of the topics which ended up as the "Character Counts" trait of the month, we haven't one a very good job listening.

I read somewhere, and I may be making this up, that the average person lies like six times per day.

Now you see, I'm gonna be a hypocrite this week. I don't like lying very much, as an ideal, but I do it exceedingly often. Occasionally, I'll just lie to see if I can get away with it. Maybe that makes me a sociopath.

Whatever.

Truth is a very valuable currency. In the Mass Effect game series, which I have been playing often in order to pump myself up for the third installment, there is a character known as the Shadow Broker. The Shadow Broker's job is to gather up as much information as possible, and he (later she; long story) sells it to the highest bidder. I'm not sure why I told about that, other than its a cool idea.

Truth is the only means we have to communicate with one another.

You ever think about History class? If your history teacher just made up a new war, would you question it? Let's say that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while robbing a bank, and all the historians decided to hush it up, would you know about it? No.

For a culture that lies as often as it does, we take the truth for granted. We trust almost every word out of the mouths of our parents, of our teachers, of our idols, and take it as truth. Why?

Because what's the alternative? A world in which we know nothing for certain, nothing that can't be seen with our eyes, or heard with our ears?

Maybe that's why I have such a problem with religion. It requires you going off of what other people are just saying- there is no definitive proof, no stone that says, "GOD WUZ HERE", nothing so definitive. But why do I take the history textbook as truth, and not a book much older?

I don't know. Probably because the Bible has a lot more, for lack of a better word, magic than history tends to. Probably why I don't buy the Long Island Medium either.

I think a world where people were more honest might be an improvement. Sure, there would be fewer couples (can't lie about flaws or opinions), more unemployed (can't lie about feelings about boss or inactivity at work) and less friends, but there would also be fewer corrupt politicians, much more criminals in jail, and things like that. People would be a lot more callous and take criticism better. People wouldn't have to worry about Ponzi schemes, dupes, cons, bamboozles, evil plans, none of it.

Not worth discussing this though. It's like conceiving a world with less dependance on technology; sure, it's fine to think, but barring some catastrophic attack, won't come to fruition. An even greater attack would be needed to get people to stop lying.

But of course, I must practice what I preach, and that's where I fall short. I lie often. I don't want people to get offended, so I lie. I don't want to freak people out, so I lie. I don't want people to feel sad, so I lie. I don't want to admit that I'm human, so I lie.

And I'm not gonna stop, or tone it down, at least til the end of high school. Once I cut bonds with all of the dead weight here (not saying everyone is dead weight, calmate) I can just keep the good ones around. But do me a favor, and don't ask me if you are a good one or not. You may not want to hear it, and I might not want to say it.

Thanks for reading and considering,
-J. Valett