Being human is quite exhausting, don't get me wrong, it has its beautiful moments. If there was something I have come to realise after years of being on earth is that, the most difficult "beings" to manage are humans. We are creatures with diverse knowledge and perspective which makes it a lot harder for us to think the say way or follow the same direction.
This individual perspective of ours influences the concept of truth. The definition of truth is subjective to individual perspective of what we believe to be true. Which means, the concept of truth doesn't necessarily depend on what is true but what can be proven and generally acceptable.
One of the most important thing among social creatures such as humans is communication, which mostly involves the usage of words. For a human to have a pleasant experience being human, he/she needs to master use cases of words. Words are mightier than swords, it can break the unbreakable and if used inappropriately, it can also rain havoc and open doors to eternal chaos.
I have this code of conduct when relating with people, especially in an official capacity. The code is simple, I try as much as possible not say more than what is needed to be said. There are times when the truth we so much cherish can cause harm to the people we care about or even ourselves, that is how dangerous it is to speak carelessly.
For most people that experienced being victimised for saying too much and they still want to maintain the dignity of speaking the truth, they consider the trick of omission. Every story must have a plot but we can decide how the story will be told and how much information should be told.
It is still the same as telling truth but not a detailed one. I mean instead of having to narrate every single detail of what ever occurred, a person can decide to only speak of what is needed to be said, while leaving the recipient to figure the rest out themselves. Most people call this partial truth or lies of omission but which is it, a lie or truth? the fact that the truth isn't fully covered in details does that make it any less of the truth?
I'm quite aware of how omitting some details in truth telling can change its entire narrative but most times, people tell partial truth to avoid being held accountable or quoted for their words. We live in a world where words have so much power and a person can quickly find themselves in a very bad situation for saying the right thing the wrong time or to the wrong people.
There are some occupation that warrants people to tell partial truth to avoid occupational hazzard. For instance, a medical doctor addressing the family of a patient. No matter how low the fatality of a patient condition is, a professional doctor will never promise to save the patient's life or give assurance that the person would survive. All they would say is, we will try our best, meaning anything can happen.
They use all kinds of word to avoid saying it all, I mean a doctor would only tell a patient or their family that he/she won't survive until they are 99% sure and this involves terminally ill patients. They know how devastating their words could be at that moment and any wrong usage of words could lead to serious legal issues or career sabotage.
Though there are people that does it to avoid sentencing, trying to play with the justice system. Lies of omission can also be used for selfish reasons but in my own case, if I find myself not wanting to narrate the entire thing, it is always because I believe telling the whole thing would cause unnecessary drama.
I mean imagine being an apprentice to a cheating boss and somehow you found out. Probably someday, one conversation led to another between you and the spouse of your boss, which warrants you to speak of your boss misdeeds. It is not as if anyone is asking you to testify or something, it is just that the conversation just lead to that specific subject. In this case, you know that speaking of this without being asked will definitely destroy your boss marriage, hurt the spouse and definitely cost you your job. Believe me, you don't have to be intelligent to know how exactly to remove yourself from such situation.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled The lie of omission in hive learners community.
Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
Image 1 - Source
Image 1 - Source
