Sincerity is an important virtue since knowledge of the truth is a value of honesty. However, some people confuse the apparent ethical and honest sincerity with sincericide, that is, with the destructive attitude of not measuring the impact that hurtful words can have on the recipient.
The difference between sincerity and sincericide is that while in the first case, the truth expressed is necessary and constructive in the context of a relationship, on the contrary, the second reflects a totally unnecessary message that does not add a positive value to the situation that two people live.
Hurtful sincerity
On the contrary, people tend to walk away to protect themselves from the harmful attacks of those who turn sincerity into an excuse to say everything that comes to their mind as if they were a small child who does not differentiate what is proper and appropriate, from what is not. it is.
There is a scenario where sincericide is currently gaining ground: social networks and the internet. There where under the mask of anonymity some people take advantage of this apparent advantage to say any thought and may even become offensive with another person. For example, making negative evaluations about someone's physical appearance.
That person who has this attitude in his face-to-face relationships considers that his attitude is very honest because he says things to the face. And yet, he does not stop to think about what a world would be like in which each one was saying aloud everything that he / she thinks about the others. It could be chaos.
Differentiate truth from opinion
Education allows, precisely, to harmonize social coexistence by understanding that what for some people is the sincerity of expressing a truth that they take as absolute, others observe a simple opinion. An opinion that, therefore, is relative and circumstantial.
But also, many messages add up to absolutely nothing. In fact, the person who falls into sincericide may not only be so because of the idea he is formulating, but also because of the way in which he has expressed this message.
It is in this nuance of form and content that covert aggressiveness can be present. Just as irony and sarcasm are also common masks that we associate with the term to say something without actually showing the true intention.
Photo: Fotolia - madhourse
