Labels: pieces of me
Despite the air of disappointment in the previous post, Iron Man was never a disappointment. Technically speaking, the suit is made of a type of aluminium alloy (x
It would be a brutal lie to say that i have never lied in my life.
To some people being polite, and using little white lies is considered important.
To some people speaking the truth in an unoffensive way is considered important.
A person who is true to himself will diligently seek out information about the aspects of reality with which he needs to interact in order to benefit himself. He will acknowledge what he knows and apply it; he will acknowledge what he does not know and seek it out. He will put what he knows into practice to maximize benefits to himself, given his best understanding of reality. In doing so, he might fail in his goal or overlook a facet of reality. However, we cannot fault him for doing his best especially if he resolves to improve his knowledge and avoid similar errors in the future. The honest individual will recognize that his personal failings and undesirable circumstances are not unavoidably imposed on him by external forces beyond his control; he will refuse to remain a passive victim and will resist negative external pressures.
Note that honesty does not begin with communication with other people; it begins with the self. A person can be perfectly honest with himself and not say a word to another person in a given situation.
Let us imagine a man sitting in a theater, watching a film whose central ideas he recognizes to be contrary to his best self-interest. Would it be wise for the man to immediately declare his realization to the rest of the audience? Of course not. The man can recognize all the failings of the film and genuinely seek to act in a manner otherwise than as the film suggests without ever speaking a word about it to anyone. If he does talk about the film to everyone in the audience while the film is playing, the man would in fact be committing a dishonest act; he would be engaged in self-deception concerning his genuine self-interest which does not include being expelled from the theater.
A rationally selfish individual does not see himself as possessing an inherent responsibility to other people unless that responsibility was consensually entered into in the form of a promise, contract, or agreement. Thus, he is not obligated to give other people the truth about himself, his thoughts, or his understanding of reality; he can choose to do so only if it serves his best self-interest. This lack of obligation does not give him license to mislead other people or to give them deliberate falsehoods. However, he has three options whenever he interacts with another person: stating the whole truth, stating part of the truth, or silence.
Sometimes stating the whole truth or a part of it to other people will anger or offend those people so that they react in a manner harmful to the truthful individual. The honest man is under no obligation to speak in such circumstances, and silence is a superior option. However, in some situations even silence is detrimental. If a robber-murderer asks an individual where his family is hiding, the individual would not only betray the people he values by telling the truth; the individual is morally obligated to mislead the robber-murderer in order to save his family. After all, if the individual were to stay silent, the robber-murderer might kill him for being uncooperative. Misleading the robber-murderer might send him off on a futile search and buy the man and his family time to escape or organize retaliation.
Thus, when communicating with other people, the honest man will use the following set of principles:
1) When it benefits or does not harm him, he will tell all or part of the truth.
2) When it harms him to tell all or part of the truth, he will stay silent.
3) Only when it harms him to either tell the truth or to stay silent, he will tell a falsehood.
I admit. I have a heart of steel. I am indifferent. Most people are. I just do it with a bit of sarcasm.But, having met you, i feel the tendency to change, Eloise. I won't though. You will not get the satisfaction from me being prized open like a can of soda ^^ There is one thing i am capable of promising, and that is i will never lie to you. Ever :)