Esquire has a hilarious and insightful article on “Radical Honesty” — a “movement” to tell the truth, the complete truth, all the time:
The movement was founded by a sixty-six-year-old Virginia-based psychotherapist named Brad Blanton. He says everybody would be happier if we just stopped lying. Tell the truth, all the time. This would be radical enough — a world without fibs — but Blanton goes further. He says we should toss out the filters between our brains and our mouths. If you think it, say it. Confess to your boss your secret plans to start your own company. If you’re having fantasies about your wife’s sister, Blanton says to tell your wife and tell her sister. It’s the only path to authentic relationships. It’s the only way to smash through modernity’s soul-deadening alienation. Oversharing? No such thing.
It’s an interesting concept, but it’s not likely to fly. Can you imagine how most people would react to complete and total honesty? Not very well. There’s something to be said for tact and the judicious filtering of thoughts before they’re verbalized.
It doesn’t have to “fly” for the whole world. The point of it is to acheive a liberation of one’s self, not anyone else. Sure, your wife might leave you and her sister might slap you, but at least you won’t remain in the tomb of deceit. Then again, that’s not to say I don’t agree with you – I think we have evolved tact for good reasons. To be clear, then: the first – and most important – step is to develop radical honesty with yourself. That’s where the real danger starts, when we’re masking our own pain and insecurities internally. Take your skeletons out of the closet and dance with them, as someone once said.