‘We should hang out more.’ ‘No.’
Anyone who preaches, “honesty is the best policy,” ironically, is lying.
That statement is erroneous malarkey, essentially advising people to thoroughly sabotage every last human connection they’ve ever had, hurting feelings and becoming a widely despised individual because they followed a socially detrimental policy. Imagine the types of conversations you’d have in common scenarios, speaking pure, unadulterated honesty.
Scenario #1
You run into Person You Weren’t Close To, But Know From High School in the grocery store.
Person You Weren’t Close To, But Know From High School: Hey!
You: Hey.
Person You Weren’t Close To, But Know From High School: This is crazy, I haven’t seen you in so long!
You: Yeah, I mean, we weren’t really like, friends or anything, so not seeing each other isn’t “crazy,” per se. In fact, I think you could argue that it makes a ton of sense and, had we not run into each other right here, it’s more than feasible that we could’ve gone the rest of our lives not seeing each other, or even remembering that one another exist.
Person You Weren’t Close To, But Know From High School: Um, I suppose so… Anyway, what’s new?
You: Since it has been nine years since I last saw your face, it’d be somewhat difficult to recall precisely what’s “new.” Also, you don’t have any previous knowledge of my past to compare my current p to, so that’s a rather silly question, y’know?