Lies

When people are too honest and genuine, life gets painful. Society becomes our mirror and we are forced to confront the truth all day long. It is okay if the truth is positive. In fact, if you are beautiful, smart and successful, you would love to swim about in truthful praises all day long.

However, if you are fat, old and ugly, would it not be immensely cruel to be confronted with by the truth all day long. Society becomes your mirror reflecting every bit of your microscopic details. Your strengths are enlarged. So are your flaws. Brutal honesty results in extremely high standards in society. Some of these standards are virtually unattainable. As a result, it brews feelings of helplessness in people which eventually lead to depression and suicide.

While it is callous to be brutally honest, one must not swing to the other extreme and become overly polite and tactful. When courtesy becomes too regimental and politically-correct, it loses it charm. It becomes artificial and cheap. What good are praises if they are repeated to everyone like a tape recorder? Life becomes predictable. People speak to each other as if they are reading off an invisible script.

Perhaps an ideal society would consist of a good mix of courtesy and honesty. Though we must be courteous and gracious at all times, we must always bear in mind the basic purpose of human communication; To convey a truthful message. If everything you say are lies, why do you bother to speak at all?

But who am I kidding? There is no such thing as a perfect society. I will start by correcting ME.