“Tell the truth, or at least don’t lie”

Readers of this may well recognise this title. It is one of the rules for life that Jordan Peterson wrote about in his popular book “12 rules for life”.

I won’t presume to go into more detail as he does in the book, he is far more adept at doing this than I am.

I was thinking about this today though when I had another blog post make me think. All too often we are tempted to take the path of least resistance

As human beings can we ever really know ‘the truth’? I am of an opinion these days that the answer is a resounding ‘No’! Human beings live in a landscape lacking clarity and uncertainty and we tend to continuously make judgements based on our own perspectives. Perspective is the key word here. Everyone has one. So perhaps we should stop looking for truth as a definitive, but rather understand that there is likely more than one truth, after all is a truth from the perspective of a person wrong, just because it differs from someone else’s? ‘The’ truth exists, although in most cases, we are truly unable to see it in its entirety. Perhaps we should accept ‘the’ truth is just ‘our’ truth.

It’s a pretty divisive issue these days, especially around the whole issue of ‘Fake News”, and I don’t think that it’s an easy answer. It does, in fact, open up a whole can of worms, for the unscrupulous to exploit this confusion and label it as ‘their’ truth.

Many people deal with this confusion daily, be it from a cheating partner, a domineering boss, overly competitive colleagues, Politics and Religion or many other sources. This remains an issue that has been around from the beginning of time.

What I personally believe is that Human beings have the capacity (in most cases), for empathy with others. Being able to accept another perspective is not an agreement of their perspective but possibly the start of creating understanding as a basis for development. It’s something that is born of emotional intelligence and demonstrates flexibility, honesty and a willingness to understand from a wider point of view.

One thing I do know about honesty, is that it is not often an easy option. In fact I would say that it is often fraught with danger and this is where I agree with Jordan 100%.

It is with this in mind that I will leave you. Please take a little time to ponder this, and be mindful and empathetic of other points of view rather than blatantly disregarding them. It may just make you a better you, wether you agree or not…

Until next time…