Real thought:
What depresses me most about the state of the world at present is that we've stopped caring to live up to the spirit of our ideals.
When we fail them and are pressed, we can rationalize our terrible actions based on technicalities - and large swaths of our culture have normalized doing this very thing.
It is my most sincere hope that we can walk our way back from this. I see some signs of this, but would prefer to see many more.
@TechConnectify Doing this requires the conviction of real character, which implies the strength of will that can only come from discipline. If we refuse to risk offending each other with the hard truth, then we have *nothing but rationalizations* to offer in response to these failings.
The polite saying is "if you have nothing good to say then say nothing", which sounds like (but isn't) a great way to avoid conflict in the same way that "men don't cry" sounds like (but isn't) a great way to avoid negative emotions. Bottled up emotions don't evaporate, and conflict delayed is conflict amplified.
It's not a fun or easy thing to do, but neither is the alternative.
@lux @TechConnectify My idea of a good world is one in which people are happy and not suffering. "Men don't cry" is indeed unhelpful here, but it seems to me that one is improving with new generations.
There are some times when you need to tell someone something that might upset them. For example, you should tell someone when they're being rude. But I don't think that comes up very often, and I suspect it's not what you're talking about.