Sincerism

[jadine]

I believe in total, absolute openness and honesty in relationships.  I wish this could be applied more broadly, but societal conventions label very direct communication as "rude".  Instead, we're expected to dance around every interaction, watching for subtle cues that may mean very different things to the different people involved, and guessing at

Comments

[drexle]

Huh, what an interesting thing to read in the morning. Particularly relevant after being subjected to bludgeoning "honesty" as was seen through the eyes of a virtual stranger (albeit one I see frequently) earlier this week.

What would be the ultimate goal? What would be the costs? The cost I see involved in such a society is that it is more likely to be a confrontational one. Thing is that regardless of how direct, honest, or un-wavering you may be in expressing your point, that point has to be interpreted by a squishy emotion-machine that you have absolutely no control over and of which you may have very little knowledge of the inner workings. That kind of direct honesty often can lead to a confrontation simply because once a person takes offense the most likely courses of action they take are to shut down or to escalate until there's a "winner".

It's also been my experience that the absolute least effective way to convince anyone of the "correctness" of your view is to state it with complete honesty, even if it's an opinion the person you're trying to convince might otherwise agree with you. Those emotion-machines that do the interpretive dance through all the input they receive can decide that it's taken offense at what was said, or the way it was said, and in that case instantly shuts down. Is either side better off for this outcome?