Should one be with that "truth" which is going to hurt some one.

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   Sundeep Katariaposted 10 years ago

   "Truth is truth." "Truth always prevails"......all this is nice but on the practical side sometime truth can hurt also. What should one do?

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      Ewentposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Truth only hurts someone if they prefer fantasy and fiction. Most of us need to develop a finely honed sense of tact when presenting truth. Sometimes, the wisest thing we can do is allow truth to prevail in and of itself, without our interference.
      
      It becomes a matter of choice and responsibility. We can all choose the best moments to present truth in a responsible manner. Or, we can choose to remain silent and allow truth to reveal itself in its own good time.

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         EncephaloiDeadposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         +1 Well said.

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      Ericdierkerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Clearly society believes blunt truth should rarely be used when harm may come to someone because of it. Just look here at HP. Recent gross systemic failures that clearly would effect earnings and traffic reporting not to mention cut down on visits. Pointing that out here is like yelling fire. Blunt truth about Obamacare was not revealed. And realities that would cause panic and make a situation worse are not disclosed.
      Why would we share the truth about war with a small child? Why would we tell an ugly person that they are ugly?

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         Ewentposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Ericdieker..In a perfect world, there are no gross systemic failures. Humans are without fallibility and life is idyllic...if not peaceful and orderly. Since you took the shot at Obamacare, the question remains how much better you think healthcare would be at the rate of cost it had been?
         
         Your post assume, in the case of Obamacare, that adults were not "told" of the negatives. One might assume that as an adult with any sense of forevision that wouldn't be necessary.
         
         I worked with children for over 3 decades. What hurts most adults about their children is that children have only to mimic their parents behaviors. Today's world of adults is glutted with unnecessary anger that's already playing out in children who are becoming more and more violent or engrossed in violence.
         
         I don't "tell" anyone anything they have not asked of me. If you do, that might be your problem. There are times when silence is golden. Those among us who have this artful characteristic down to a science.
         
         Furthermore, I don't answer questions that have not been asked nor am I willing to dignify questions I feel have no validity with an answer.

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            Ericdierkerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Ewent, I gather you have no children. If I only told the truth when asked a question my children would not have reached adulthood.

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               Ewentposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               You gather wrong. I have 2 children. So, let me see if I've got this right..You didn't tell your children the truth? That' figures and explains why 90% of the 40 and 50 year olds today cannot handle facts and truth. Instead, liar parents taught them it's perfectly okay to circumvent, reinterpret and generally misinterpret truth when it suits their self-serving purposes.
               
               Sorry, teaching any child that truth is something they can't handle is patently wrong and sets the worst possible example for them later in life. It's what the Madoffers of the world today are composed of..lies, deceptions and corruption. Lies are corruptions of truth.
               
               I'm surprised intelligent, well bred men today even admit they didn't answer their children's questions truthfully.

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                  Ericdierkerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Ewent you read this wrong. I suggest we tell the truth even when not asked for it.
                  
                  Do whales eat tiny creatures we cannot see, and kill millions of them a day?
                  
                  Yes and No. We can see all the creatures using magnification or we would not know what they eat. Yes most wild animals kill other animals to eat them and whales are huge and krill is tiny so the numbers are huge.
                  
                  The moral question was not asked but needed to be inserted in order to teach the truth.
                  
                  Using the kind of children I raise as an example is unfair -- 7 college degrees between three in their twenties is just an exception and no rule.

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                     Ewentposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Perhaps I did misinterpret your meaning. If so, mea culpa. It was never a personal attack but a generalization of parent and the behaviors they often unknowingly teach their children.
                     
                     As I stated, I worked with children of all ages...pre-school to young adult. What I observed is their inbred behaviors that marked their own breeding.
                     
                     A college degree is not a benchmark for human behavior. I've worked with enough PhDs (one from MIT) to know they still all put their pants on the same way I do..one leg at a time. And, they still all have those inbred, learned traits of character that no college degree can change.
                     
                     Some things in this life are not learned in college nor can they be degreed. Life experience is always the best and most truthful teacher of right and wrong, truth and lies, facts and distortions.
                     
                     For the record, I never went to college but I taught for 12 years at Rutgers. I earned my degree in life experience the hard way...24/7. But, I am happy to say it was more than worth the effort.

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               HowardBThinameposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               As a parent, the only times I didn't tell the WHOLE truth was when my children were too young to process the information (such as the birds and the bees questions).   But - what I did tell them was still true. A three-year-old can understand the truth of "a baby grows in mommy's tummy," without getting into details of how it got there.
               
               When my young son's friend died in an auto accident - he asked me what the injuries were. I didn't want to tell him the other child had been decapitated so I told him that the injuries were severe but that I didn't think it was responsible for me to tell him what they were until he was older. When he grew up - he never asked.
               
               You can always tell the truth without telling the whole truth, and sometimes, that's all you need to do.

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                  Ewentposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Howard, I so agree. Not all truth needs to be so graphic or present images that we know children are incapable of processing.
                  
                  If all adults were like you, children would learn other very important life lessons:  tact, diplomacy and sensitivity.

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      kessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It is a false idea that it is possible that truth can hurt someone.

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      Harishprasadposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Truth is not saying all  words or secrets hidden in the mind. Truth is like food that is prepared after pruning vegetables or pulses  and selecting the best pieces, washing them and adding the required quantities of spices, oil, water and other ingredients and heated and cooked  in a proper manner. The  food is ready but one cannot swallow it right away. A little wait is needed to put it on the tongue and send to the tummy to satiate hunger. Like unbaked bread or uncooked food,  if we use truth, the environment around us will be tasteless. If we use words even if they are true and these hurt or offend someone, I think either words chosen by us are wrong or our timing is not appropriate. To say that a man will live so long that he will outlive his offsprings is truth but words are wrong. To say that a man will live a long glorious life no one has ever lived is the same truth but spoken with appropriate words. Truth cannot be synonymous with blunt words without application of mind.

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