Inspiration from Destruction, and the False Ideology of "If You Have Nothing 'Nice' to Say Then Don't Say Anything at All"

in #philosophy6 years ago (edited)

There's a "positivity" motto or saying that goes along the lines of: if you have nothing "nice" to say then don't say anything at all. This false philosophy is a dangerous one in the face of falsity and evil that needs to be changed in order for our overall lives to improve on this planet. Most people don't find the hard and uncomfortable truths to be something "nice" to hear.


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Manly P. Hall is a famous person to have said something similar:

"We must learn the science of self-expression … if we cannot say something useful, there is no need to become involved in the conversation. If we cannot say something that inspires, at least say nothing that destroys."
- Manly P. Hall

The first part is indeed accurate:

"if we cannot say something useful, there is no need to become involved in the conversation"

It doesn't mean to not say anything if you can't say something "nice". Useful information to help us see the world as it is, instead of believing it to be contrary to how it is, is required to progress in understanding the world and ourselves. Truth can hurt. But indeed, if we have nothing useful to say, why "need" to say anything at all?

Uncomfortable silences? Not for me. People have an aversion to silence, but silence is often golden. I speak when I have something pertinent to say.

This second part is the most contentious saying, as the words used can convey a misunderstanding:

"If we cannot say something that inspires, at least say nothing that destroys"

Yet, if you are familiar with the apophatic deconstructive process of self-renewal and self-improvement, then that above saying rings of falsity. The previous part of the Hall saying is true, and we can of course say anything even if it's not specifically useful, but we don't "need" to. It's not required, whereas the second part of the saying quoted here has confusion about what is often required, which is that of destruction that comes with the potential to be inspired to greater heights. Some things need to be destroyed, or else we are stuck there and don't have the inspiration to evolve.

"That which can be destroyed by the Truth should be."
– P.C. Hodgell

"Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretence. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true."
– Adyashanti

When giving out hard truth that shakes and destroys people's foundations for their self-view and world-view, they can get angry and hateful towards you. But this process of truth confronting false perceptions is indeed an inspiring process. The build up correctly, we must first tear down the incorrect and rebuild from a more solid foundation. We can do this over and over in life, yet many people fear letting go of their current/old conditioning in favor of more reliable and veracious information.

Truth can construct or destruct. Both are inspiring for for evolving consciousness. By chipping away at all the nonsense that covers up the truth and prevents us from seeing it, we can begin to see it for what it is. All the garbage and falsity needs to be cleared away. It is our universal duty and responsibility to chip away at falsity and break down the lie. People need to understand when they are doing something wrong. Those who care about truth can create a bullshit free zone by speaking the truth that anyone can learn and verify.

For truth to inspire, one must be able to accept and embrace it with eyes to see and ears to hear.

For those who remain attached to falsity, lies, deception, illusion or bullshit, they can't yet rise from the inspiration of truth, for they can't even detect it. They see truth as an affront to the falsity they are attached to won't let go of. Those who are attached to lies must "fall", "burn" and learn to let go of their illusions and delusions so that they can rise from the burnt ashes and truly be inspired by the light of truth that they formerly rejected.

Much destruction is requires in speech and communication if we are to get out of our collective co-created self-inflicted suffering. Hall was not correct in what he stated explicitly. Sure, saying pointlessly hurtful things destroys in the negative way, like Hall says correctly, but people will interpret any message delivered to them that they perceive as an attack upon themselves as "destructive", even if it's a truth. A hard truth is destructive to the attachment to falsity.

But they say the truth is an attack because it's used as a deflective/dismissive technique to avoid facing the truth, due to their attachment to false beliefs used as a basis for their ego-personality-identity construct. The truth is destroying their false-ego, it is destructive, but for the good, to help them rise above falsity they are attached to. Yet they take this as negative, hurtful, unkind, unhelpful, non-compassionate, unloving, etc. and more delusional projections from their inability to face the truth about something in reality or about themselves.

Speaking truth against falsity is part of alchemical healing.Some people don't understand this, and don't really care about the truth despite claims to the contrary. Some people even speak falsity knowingly or not and project it as a truth in hopes that people won't go verify if the claim is true or not. Whoever buys into a lie also buys into an unreality and illusion.

In becoming an authentic individual, we must face the illusion/delusion of false reality and engage in a deconstructive alchemical process from which we reconstruct ourselves to be better than the former version of ourselves.

"Everything that is not the truth is removed from your life. This requires a lot of alienation."
– Michael Tsarion, The Posthuman World

When you speak truth (especially moral truth) to people to help them destroy their attachment to falsity, you end up being attacked for being the messenger of this destructive — yet helpful and necessary — process, and are alienated as a result. Some people act as if they destroy bullshit (they pretend to be agents of 'truth'), but are themselves ignorant of higher order principles in life like morality, and act as if those who do speak about these higher order principle in life are the ones speaking bullshit. Beware of those who purport to convey truth about something but are only arguing from personal dislike or ignorance. Trolls are plentiful online.

Correcting errors and misunderstandings that contradict reality helps everyone get closer to the same page of understanding our lives as we collectively try to cooperate for survival optimization. Correcting incorrect things is a helpful process for all of humanity. Destroy the false to inspire the truth.


Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.


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Better to keep quiet than to spread rumors and lies. There's wisdom in listening first before talking.

The truth is often a hard pill to swallow. Nothing in life is easy, and knowing and understanding the truth is certainly just as hard. Once you know it though, I think you appreciate it more. I’ve come to know and understand many truths in life, as has my wife and it’s been a difficult process and one that is painful at times but eventually you come out on the other side a much different person. Usually for the better since lies and mistruths are often comforting, it’s great to look back on the process and see what happened and then acknowledge how the truth changed you to break out of that comfort and into more of a reality than before.

Indeed, the pain of knowledge/truth washing away the bliss of ignorance ;)

For something to be created, something must be destroyed. That's just the way the world works. In this case, truth is 'created'(discovered/found) by destroying the false.

And the whole "If You Have Nothing Nice to Say Then Don't Say Anything at All" belief, as you mentioned, is indeed just straight up ridiculousness. Arguments can't be solved my being 'nice'. They are solved by being logical and reasonable even if they are not necessarily ethical.

Indeed. Truth is revealed to inspire when the falsity is shattered, like light through the clouds.

"This false philosophy is a dangerous one" I couldn't agree more.

I have always thought the concept behind that saying pretty stupid. You lay out a good case here but I think the argument can be made in simple terms too. Sometimes we need someone to be a dick to get anything done and how nice a statement is has nothing to do with how true it is. For example, I used to be fond of target shooting and I once saw an incident in which someone was handling their weapon in a very unsafe manner and then the range officer went over to him and, in a very dickish way, called him an idiot and made him leave. What he had to say to that guy wasn't very nice but it was true and it may have kept someone from being accidently shot.

Well, being a dick is different. You don't have to be that way. Speaking truth isn't about being a dick, but often it's not well received, not "nice" or "kind", as it's not about smiley faces and "feeling good" heh..

Haha I suppose you are right but, as you point out, that is how many will tend to see it. Plus "dick" is more fun to say than "an individual who is unconcerned with nicety when the truth is involved" or something like that lol.

Yea dude I’ve never thought of that sentence literally before, but it’s crazy right? It’s basically just telling us to be quiet and do as you’re told, or to be a false person and not stand up for your true self.

Sure, some could argue the meaning is to be a nice and kind person when talking/treating others, but the bigger meaning is the ‘man’ coming down on us hard!

I’ve been struggling with something recently...... my sister and her boyfriend earn very good money in London (it’s changed them but that’s another story) but she recently said to me “I wonder if I’m rich” and proceeded to check on the internet for “what is being rich” and looking at salaries to define if she is or not rich. What bothers me, is that not once did it even cross her mind to say “I know I am rich when I can provide my parents financial freedom” or “being rich is being happy, and having your family free and happy”. I’ve expressed to her many time how I am saving for my parents to be able to retire and still live, and I earn jack shit, she never wants to contribute. I just don’t get it. I don’t want anything from her but to be my sister, but she never wants to speak to me, it’s always me to her etc. I guessed I’m just surprised how I would see being ‘rich’ compared to the person who is as genetically similar to me as they come

You've taken on quite a burden for yourself. Good luck achieving your goals, it's admirable.

We can be nice and kind, but sometimes the truth hurts.

Great post!

As you mentioned in many more words - it is the perception of the listener that determines whether or not the information is beneficial to said person receiving it. Truth is destructive when dealing with lies. As you would tear down an old decrepit house to build a new dream home, we must allow our false perceptions to be destroyed to build new ones based in truth and love.

Truth is always constructive criticism.

Yes, align perceptions with reality, not hold onto falsity ;)

Among the assertive rights of every human being is the right to express oneself freely, to express his own opinion and to be respected by it. What happens when we are silent is because we fear that our future is not in favor of the subject or of the person affected and the reason for this is that we are always seeking the approval of the other.

positivity, new age, secret, etc are enemies of the Truth...are frauds....don't go for positivity...go for THE TRUTH

Yes, I agree about that nonsense as well ;)

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