I recently ran across this interesting article about Radical Honesty, a movement founded by a psychotherapist named Brad Blanton who suggests that we should kick our addiction to lying and just tell the complete truth all the time. I also like this quote from the Wikipedia article on Radical Honesty: "The significant majority of participants in the Radical Honesty workshops report dramatic changes in their lives after taking the course, though they are not always comfortable and positive." The movement visibly suffers from having been founded by a psychotherapist - it's more about the amazing happiness that absolute truth-telling can bring to your relationships (!!) rather than such rationalist values as seeking truth by teaching yourself a habit of honesty, or not wishing to deceive others because it infringes on their autonomy.

I once suggested a notion called "Crocker's Rules", which was the mirror image of Radical Honesty - rather than telling the whole truth to other people, you would strive to always allow others to tell you the complete truth without being offended.

Crocker's Rules didn't give you the right to say anything offensive, but other people could say potentially offensive things to you, and it was your responsibility not to be offended. This was surprisingly hard to explain to people; many people would read the careful explanation and hear, "Crocker's Rules mean you can say offensive things to other people."

I was initially a bit suspicious of Blanton's movement - it seemed like the mirror-image that so many people misinterpreted, the option of saying offensive things to other people. But Blanton makes it not only optional, but mandatory to speak your mind - a far greater inconvenience than Crocker's Rules would ever impose on anyone.

Crocker's Rules didn't catch on. Maybe it was too hard to tell the difference between someone delivering a slap in the face, and someone deliberately invoking Crocker's Rules - you don't want to miss a real clue to real hostility because of your acceptance; you wouldn't want to not believe a true fact, even if the true fact is that someone else hates you. And third parties may assume the truthteller is an offensive person no matter how much the receiver disclaims offense - they may assume the receiver is "just being polite", or that requesting honesty does not excuse its offens...

tamartist

tamartist