Do we have to pay price for speaking the truth? Is it harder to be truthful?

Question

Have you experienced this?

Answer 1

I'm gonna be honest with you and say I dont know.

Personally, I try my best to speak the truth because it is important for others to know how things really are.

However, I feel people don't tell the truth because there is no gain in it for them. Self-gain is what truth is about. Think about it...sometimes you wonder if telling the truth was so right. What did you lose from it...what did you gain? That's paying truth with a price->seeking the benefits of lying or telling the truth.

Is it harder to be truthful? Again, I guess that really depends on your character. One may feel telling a dear friend they have 3 days to live is the right thing to do, whereas another might feel their friend does not need to hear this news. In either case the friend can realize their is short time to live and chooses the way he wants to go: living life or dying.

Truth or Lie? My belief is it matters on which is the right thing to do. In essence it always will matter on right and wrong, but our emotions sometimes get the best of us and we may fail to see what was actually right.

Have I experienced this? Of course. It's life. We all have.

Answer 2

Speaking the truth is a double edged sword. On the one hand, speaking the truth is incredibly liberating. So, no, it isn't harder to be truthful. In fact it can be quite a bit easier has you don't have to remember any lies. Lies inevitably lead to more lies. “Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive”

On the other hand, speaking the truth can be very disturbing to others as it may disrupt pleasant illusions. If this other person is someone that has power over you or influences your life, there can be negative consequences of speaking the truth.

Personally, I have a steadfast rule to always speak the truth and always speak my mind - if I say anything at all. It hasn't harmed my career or my marriage. I have a couple of great kids with a great wife and I now guide the software architecture of a development group consisting of over 300 engineers.

That said, I will sometimes choose to not speak at all rather than having to say bad things, especially about a person. If there is harm in holding back I will speak tho.

The key to limiting the impact of speaking the truth and speaking your mind is to minimize embarrassment of your communication partners. This means you have to take critical conversations private. For example, criticizing your boss or his ideas is fine (mostly) if you do it one on one. If you do that in front of everybody, your career is at an abrupt end.

It also helps to slowly introduce criticism. "You're a moron!" will elicit very different reactions than "This idea of yours doesn't quite hit the mark. Here is why."

Answer 3

There is a price to pay for every choice we make. There's a price for speaking the truth (hurting someone's feelings, costing someone a job, being put to death), but there is also a price for lying (compromised integrity, punishment when you get caught, hurting someone's feelings).

The trick is to accept the responsibility of your choices. I try to always tell the truth, which means people usually know exactly where they stand with me. The price, however, is that a lot of people who don't know me well perceive me as cruel or bitchy. I have to live with that or else compromise my own ethic about truthfulness.

Most people don't want to take responsibility for their own actions one way or the other. When confronted with the price of their choice, they try to wheedle out of it or blame someone. It is hard to be personally accountable, but the world would be a far better place if everyone claimed their own actions and accepted responsibility for them. And if we all did that, in the end, everyone would tell the truth too.

Read Jean-Paul Sartre's writings on existentialism. It explains all this far better than I can, and it just may change your life.

Answer 4

It is sometimes more difficult to speak the truth because the reaction can be scrutinous. Truth is sometimes not the same as popular belief, but the real price is in your own conscience knowing you have been false.
I think most of us have experienced this in the form of peer pressure, which happens at any age. We have a choice of conforming to fit in and that is not our truth. I never feel good about myself when I find I've fallen into this trap. I'd rather be different and viewed as the odd ball out than have nobody know the real me because I'm lying to them through my conformity.

Answer 5

I think in your statement you need an example.Truth gets complicated. If you are a rape victim and have to 'pay' the price for telling the truth by public scrutiny and perhaps a law proceeding that would question your background. Yes it would be hard to be truthful and you must. If however if you have a friend who maybe was struggling with a divorce and self doubt and asked you how you liked her new haircut. I don't think you should tell the truth if you hated it..maybe say something postitive like..It's great you are putting yourself out there..I really admire you trying new things. It makes you look happier.

Answer 6

In my own experience, being truthful is difficult. It has brought me no end of verbal abuse, especially when all the asker wants is blind, ignorant vindication. I've lost friends (guess they weren't really friends) had my family turn their backs on me and treat me as outcast, been joked about, maligned, mistrusted...yes, truth is, to me, the most difficult thing in the world. I have paid the price, but you know what? I'd do it all over again, in the exact same way. It little matters, in the end, what others say...I have to live with myself, and I couldn't do that if I wasn't truthful.

Answer 7

Some times being honest can be hard and some may see it as cruel, but that person you were honest with will know you will always tell the truth. So the next time they need your advice they know you will tell the truth.(after the fact the are done being mad at you)

Answer 8

Often people that speak the truth are ostracized, ridiculed by the media, or labeled crazy. It can be dangerous to be truthful, and because of that people sometimes prefer to remain silent.

Answer 9

From my Corny name you know I admire a man who thought it more important to tell the truth than to live. I try to answer questions here as best I can and ignore the "flattery" that might win me 10 points. I think that will cost me something. I can never be certain that my answers are not "best" because I told the truth, I may just give poor answers.

Answer 10

Definitely there is a cost for truthfulness in this society. We live by many illusions. To violate these beliefs does result in all kinds of negating reactions.