If lying is bad and deception is wrong, then how come we work so hard to ensure that people lie and deceive – you know the little white lies? One example of this is how we force others to be humble, but why, is it so we can feel good about ourselves? Shouldn’t we really want to know when someone is confident, capable and achieved – why all the pretense, why is that considered a virtue?
In many cases humility is a lie, it is purposely downplaying one’s abilities, since when is lying honorable? Pretending to be nothing when you are something is holding your cards very close to the vest. Why? Going through life at a super-humility level may give someone the edge in a cunning sort of Machaivellian way, but it is still living a lie, the lie of political correctness.
Indeed, I am not the first to mention this, many dead-white men, hardly humble, academic arrogance by today’s standards, have noted the same. I would submit to you that most 80% of the people out there demand humility mostly because it is society’s norm, status quo, no need to think beyond that request, or because they haven’t done anything and don’t want anyone to realize they wear an empty suit.
Humility is not natural behavior, rather, it is a learned behavior, a societal construct. Interestingly enough, today, with all the talk of “equality” it is even more so. Is that actually a good thing? We are not all born equally, we all have a different predisposed gene set, nature, and during our life-experience we develop skills sets apart from one-another merely through varied experiences, again, those skill sets, set us apart. If we know the skill sets of others, that is a good thing, it will help society collaborate and move faster, but if we run around hiding what we are good at, how can we help each other with our skills to accomplish goals.
On most social media everyone is seeking self-validation, but never trying to push it too far, as they don’t want to cross the line too much, just a little to get noticed, otherwise fear of appearing less-than-humble. I think LinkedIn is a good system, as you can see everyone’s resume. If people were really humble, they wouldn’t ever prepare resumes, they would never give acceptance speeches, never accept a prize, or even a promotion for a job well done. Lastly ego, well, there is nothing wrong with it, as long as you know who you are, what you are capable of and where to improve. An earned ego is a positive trait, but I fail to see how deception and white lies are in the same category.