I'm going to post a series of different virtues and try to think through what the damage might be if they are not followed. I'd like to hear if anyone else has insights on why these are important. Here goes!
Honesty vs Deception
To be honest is to be credible. Liars and the honest have two different experiences of life. Those who are honest can go through life together, sharing their human experience. There is a safety with an honest person. There is a connection. There are those things that you may know of their heart that you could not have known any other way but by their admission. There is a sense of home. There is a steadiness that can last decades. Honesty is the means to discover every other form of goodness–what matters in life? Why am I the way I am? How should I live? Honesty acknowledges a person’s true self, allowing them to know and direct themselves. In groups, it eases the shackles of oversight that are necessary for the dishonest, and allows the group to run faster towards their goals.
Liars are bewildering to the honest, because we look at the trivial thing that they throw away a lifetime of trust and connection for and cannot understand. Even one lie, and a link in the chain of evidence–credibility–is broken. Everything this person says is in question. We are necessarily no longer communing and sharing experiences. We cannot collaborate with the same ease. We are guarded, defensive, scrutinizing. The burden of oversight and proofs exhausts efforts we are required to make with them. The liar is a marked person who must be segregated in our minds. This is not an easy thing to repair.
Honesty vs Deception
To be honest is to be credible. Liars and the honest have two different experiences of life. Those who are honest can go through life together, sharing their human experience. There is a safety with an honest person. There is a connection. There are those things that you may know of their heart that you could not have known any other way but by their admission. There is a sense of home. There is a steadiness that can last decades. Honesty is the means to discover every other form of goodness–what matters in life? Why am I the way I am? How should I live? Honesty acknowledges a person’s true self, allowing them to know and direct themselves. In groups, it eases the shackles of oversight that are necessary for the dishonest, and allows the group to run faster towards their goals.
Liars are bewildering to the honest, because we look at the trivial thing that they throw away a lifetime of trust and connection for and cannot understand. Even one lie, and a link in the chain of evidence–credibility–is broken. Everything this person says is in question. We are necessarily no longer communing and sharing experiences. We cannot collaborate with the same ease. We are guarded, defensive, scrutinizing. The burden of oversight and proofs exhausts efforts we are required to make with them. The liar is a marked person who must be segregated in our minds. This is not an easy thing to repair.