CANDOR: THE HONEST
FACTION MANIFESTO
DISHONESTY IS RAMPANT.
DISHONESTY IS TEMPORARY. DISHONESTY MAKES EVIL POSSIBLE.
As
it stands now, lies pervade society, families, and even the internal life of
the individual. One group lies to another group, parents lie to children,
children lie to parents, friends lie to friends, individuals lie to themselves.
Dishonesty has become so integral to the way we relate to one another that we
rarely find ourselves in authentic relationships with others. Our dark secrets
remain our own. Yet it is our dark secrets that cause conflict. When we are
dishonest with the people around us, we begin to hate ourselves for lying; when
we are dishonest with ourselves, we can never even attempt to correct the flaws
we find within us, the flaws we are so desperate to hide from our loved ones,
the flaws that make us lie.
What has become clear is that lies
are just a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Lying to spare a person’s
feelings, even when the truth would help them to improve, damages them in the
long run. Lying to protect yourself lasts for so long before the truth emerges.
Like a wild animal, the truth is too powerful to remain caged. These are
examples we can clearly see in our own lives, yet we fail to understand that
they do not just apply to the dynamic between ourselves and our neighbors, or
ourselves and our friends.
What is society but a web of
individual-to-individual relationships? And what is conflict except one
person’s dark secret crashing into another person’s dark secret? Dishonesty is
a veil that shields one person from another. Dishonesty allows evil to persist,
hidden from the eyes of those who would fight it.
DISHONESTY LEADS TO SUSPICION.
SUSPICION LEADS TO CONFLICT. HONESTY LEADS TO PEACE.
We
have a vision of an honest world. In this world, parents do not lie to their
children, and children do not lie to their parents; friends do not lie to one
another; spouses do not lie to each other. When we are asked our opinions we
are free to give them without having to consider any other responses. When we
engage in conversation with others, we do not have to evaluate their
intentions, because they are transparent. We have no suspicion, and no one
suspects us.
And most of all—yes, above all
else—we are free to expose our dark secrets because we know the dark secrets of
our neighbors, our friends, our spouses, our children, our parents, and our
enemies. We know that while we are flawed in a unique way, we are not unique
because we are flawed. Therefore we can be authentic. We have no suspicions.
And we are at peace with those around us.
TRUTH MAKES US TRANSPARENT.
TRUTH MAKES US STRONG. TRUTH MAKES US INEXTRICABLE.
We
will raise our children to tell the truth. We will do this by encouraging them
to speak their minds at every moment. For the child, withholding words is the
same as lying.
We will be honest with our children
even at the expense of their feelings. The only reason people cannot bear
honesty now is because they were not raised hearing the truth about themselves,
and they can’t stand to. If children are raised to hear both honest praise and
honest criticism, they will not be so fragile as to crumble beneath the
scrutiny of their peers. A life of truth makes us strong.
Adulthood will be defined as a time
at which each member of society is capable of bearing every other member’s dark
secrets, just as every other member will bear theirs. Therefore each member
will be subjected to The Full Unveiling, in which every hidden part of their
life is laid bare before their fellow members. They, too, will see the hidden
parts of their fellow members’ lives. In this way we bear one another’s
secrets. In this way we become inextricable:
TRUTH MAKES US INEXTRICABLE.
