Honesty as a best policy is what we mouth but do not often do. I completely believe that it is always the best policy - in the spiritual sense. In the physical day-to-day reality, sometimes telling someone that they are completely off-base and have just said something utterly reprehensible or false, will land you into a lot of trouble and possibly take away any and all means of support you have.
Why? How did we fall this low? And make no mistake - when we can not tell the truth, when honesty and the person who espouses it make someone persona non grata, we are not at a high point in human evolution. Regardless of whatever technology or other advancement we think puts us at the top of the food chain, the fact that we can not utter our own truth without landing ourselves in trouble is not indicative of an advanced society. And folks, we are there now. University professors and other professionals have to wait until they are retired to become whistle blowers and break the code of silence in our institutions. Dogma has replaced truth, the party line is towed or you are on the unemployment line.
So, why?
Look at what is trending. It is not humanity at its best. That wouldn't make the corporations enough money. But how do they get away with it? Why do we follow their lead in ads?
Human beings are remarkably imitative as a species. Don't believe me? Get a group of friends together and do something reasonably unique. You start and then get a friend to join you. Then get two more friends to fall in line Soon people you don't know will be following along. That is how we roll as a species. Except for the outliers, like me, that is. I don't frankly give a care about what people in general do.
Having established the general rule of imitativeness, (call it peer pressure if you will) if follows then that if those we see and admire are not truthful, we will have a tendancy to imitate them. Checked out politicians lately? Think they might be the trendsetters here?
I wish that were the only factor. If we examine our own behaviour we will find that we often will justify a small "untruth" here and there - in the interest of not hurting others' feelings perhaps.
But the worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves. Lies like - "I can't do that on my own!" "Who am I kidding? I could never own my own business." "I'm just no good at math". "I'll never be successful!"
When we fail to recognize the lies that keep us stuck in negativity and inaction, that keep us sitting in front of the television or video game night after night instead of getting on with what changes we can make in our lives and the lives of others, in other words when we do not live our truth, the cost of our lies becomes intolerable. Intolerable not only for those who are not living the active, happy life they are capable of living but for the others who would benefit from their help and example. What if you started a group to oppose injustice in whatever field rankles you the most? What if others joined you? Don't think that the people have power? I promise you that is not true.
Many of us have grown so used to the lies that our lives are, that we live with a sense of hopelessness or depression. What do I mean by "the lies our lives are"? Are you living your life? Or are you living someone else's version of your life?
For example, perhaps you have gone to med school or law school to make mother or father happy, or perhaps you simply accepted without question their vision of you future. Maybe you have never even questioned yourself as to what you really want out of life. Some of us sleepwalk through life, following what the others are doing, having been lulled into living the type of life, we have seen pictured on television (tell a vision) and in movies and ads. I've been there. And it is not a happy or fulfilling place to be.
So why do people do it then?
It fits you in with the crowd. Like lemmings heading for the cliff, people commiserate with others as they hurtle toward a goal, which will ultimately be their destruction. Because it isn't their personal goal!
So back to Brand...he doesn't fit in He urges others to question, to stop and think and to live differently. I can get behind that. I am an outlier too Check out his platform and some of the interviews he does. He's raw in his honesty. It is excellent.
How about you? Are you ready for a new vision? Or still letting yourself be told a vision?