Point/Counterpoint
So I'm all about adding new features to the Westification. Here's one I like to call Point/Counterpoint. This particular Point/Counterpoint is with my friend Tracy and it concerns the true meaning of the term Brutal Honesty.
In this edition, Tracy will be making the point and I will be making the counterpoint. Start by reading her point.
Here is my counterpoint:
I think it's safe to say that most people think of themselves as honest people. Unless you're Natalie Portman in Garden State and lying is akin to a nervous tick, you will (for the most part) tell the truth about things.
Most reasons for lying (dishonesty) can be lumped into two categories: (1) you are trying to protect yourself -or- (2) you are trying to avoid hurting someone else's feelings. (I guess there's also a third reason to lie, which would be humor... but that's not pertinent to the discussion at hand.)
I think our culture generally assumes that a person will tell the truth up until the point that the truth hurts them or hurts someone else in some way. Saying that I'm an honest person carries about as much weight as saying I'm a good person: it means I lie, but only when it's socially acceptable.
This creates a problem, because calling someone who always tells the truth "honest" is no longer good enough. Hence the identifier brutally honest: someone who always tells the truth, even when the truth hurts.
If I'm a brutally honest person, that doesn't mean that everything I say is brutal or painful in some way. Sometimes the truth hurts, but sometimes it's just the truth. The brutal part is just an explanation of the lengths that I will go to out of my value for honesty. I will go all out.
It's kind of like me referring to T.J. Ford as one of the best basketball players in University of Texas history. T.J. is a basketball player in University of Texas history, and the degree to which he played makes him one of the best.
Brutal honesty is a state of being rather than an identifier of a specific situation. In that way it is an inseparable term of characterization. Need I remind you all that a house divided cannot stand? Take brutal and separate it from honesty and you have someone that is mean for no reason, and honest when they should be... nothing more.
Also, I win.
In this edition, Tracy will be making the point and I will be making the counterpoint. Start by reading her point.
Here is my counterpoint:
I think it's safe to say that most people think of themselves as honest people. Unless you're Natalie Portman in Garden State and lying is akin to a nervous tick, you will (for the most part) tell the truth about things.
Most reasons for lying (dishonesty) can be lumped into two categories: (1) you are trying to protect yourself -or- (2) you are trying to avoid hurting someone else's feelings. (I guess there's also a third reason to lie, which would be humor... but that's not pertinent to the discussion at hand.)
I think our culture generally assumes that a person will tell the truth up until the point that the truth hurts them or hurts someone else in some way. Saying that I'm an honest person carries about as much weight as saying I'm a good person: it means I lie, but only when it's socially acceptable.
This creates a problem, because calling someone who always tells the truth "honest" is no longer good enough. Hence the identifier brutally honest: someone who always tells the truth, even when the truth hurts.
If I'm a brutally honest person, that doesn't mean that everything I say is brutal or painful in some way. Sometimes the truth hurts, but sometimes it's just the truth. The brutal part is just an explanation of the lengths that I will go to out of my value for honesty. I will go all out.
It's kind of like me referring to T.J. Ford as one of the best basketball players in University of Texas history. T.J. is a basketball player in University of Texas history, and the degree to which he played makes him one of the best.
Brutal honesty is a state of being rather than an identifier of a specific situation. In that way it is an inseparable term of characterization. Need I remind you all that a house divided cannot stand? Take brutal and separate it from honesty and you have someone that is mean for no reason, and honest when they should be... nothing more.
Also, I win.
posted by Brett at 11:30 PM
2 Comments:
of course, you're full of crap. if we are taking the conversation you had with Tracy on the phone as a starting point, then let me remind you that you said, "sometimes you have to be brutally honest". I repeat, you said, "sometimes", which pretty much undermines your whole "Brutal honesty is a state of being rather than an identifier of a specific situation," which syntactically fails as a sentence, btw. I mean, make up your mind.: are you always brutally honest, or just sometimes?
I propose another explanation. You are stubborn and love to argue, and will pretty much defend yourself to the end, even if secretly you know you're wrong, as you clearly do, because you love to win.
Brett,
I'm sorry, but I don't feel that your definition is accurate. Thanks for the amusement and good luck in the next point/counterpoint.
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