The Honest Crumbles when Expects Good

Whether in reel-life or real life, at schools or at the workplace, in the neighbourhood or in a distant place, it is always the honest person who is painfully yelling. Wonder why? It is not because of sacrificing the luxuries of material desire. Not due to the loneliness from walking alone. Not even because of being victimized for their integrity. Then what crumbles them? Unfortunately, it is their own self that melts them down. But how?

Often, honest people are very altruistic. But such altruism also gives rise to a hidden expectation. But what do such selfless people expect? Nothing less than a black and white world!

An honest person always expects a life where they want to fight for the good and resist the bad. But unfortunately, the world is indifferentiable. The subjectivity of ethics makes the good and the bad always blend. Even their composition is not fixed. It is extremely contextual. So, if the people for whom an honest person is going to sacrifice is also corrupt in some or the other way, then what motivates one to be honest? This is the very question that breaks even the unbreakable. This also becomes the justification for corruption in society that cuts aspiring honesty at its very roots.

But what an honest one fails to understand is that integrity is neither a sacrifice nor a badge of valour. It is just the right way to live. If everyone becomes dishonest, it degrades trust in society. Society will go insane. So, honesty is not an exceptional state, but a basic survival trait for humans to live.

Another thing that a truthful person must realize is that Life is not a movie where an honest and selfless protagonist defends good people from a selfish villain. It is an ever-running video game where we must continuously save our good selves from our evil selves. And being truthful is the only way to do that. So, honesty is not purely altruistic. It is a vaccine that prevents guilt from attacking our conscience.

Then what about the protagonist saving others? We can, at the most, guide others to protect themselves. We can't do it for them. All the Gods people worship today, only preach goodness, aspiring to change. They never force it on others. Because one’s way of life is a choice. Forcing an option may contain evil but never transform into righteousness. And only a transformed self can sustain virtue, not the one who has momentarily constrained oneself in fear or fame.

Thus, expecting honesty as reciprocity from others just because one is truthful is like a child expecting a tree to grow the same day as soon as the seed was planted. Such expectations are neither realistic nor justifiable! And these kinds of greedy expectations will not only halt further service if they go unfulfilled, which in most cases they do. But also turn the moral person into a bystander, and in the worst case, into a corrupt being!

Therefore, instead of expecting honesty back, one must aspire to earn it. While the former is about dreaming, the latter tries to bring it to reality. In this way, there won’t be any disappointments, but only duty.

Nevertheless, in such a journey to win trust, one must face failures, betrayals, and backlash. It will be defeating, overwhelming, often leading to questioning one’s own path. It is natural to feel so. In fact, such self-inquiry eventually brings clarity to re-strategize efforts. So, in such times, the thought of giving up must be given up and the necessity of resilience must be realized.

Hence, cultivating morality in others through trust extracts consistent efforts. But, just like how a well-grown tree, even after years of watering, needs more water regularly to sustain its life. Similarly, nurturing ethics in others is not a milestone but a never-ending journey which must be continued by our successors too. To inspire our future generations, we must become a symbol of probity by consistently sailing through the storm of stigmatization, victimization, and self-doubt.

After all, honesty is fidelity to our own soul, not a favour to others. Thus, we must drop the weight of crushing transactional expectations, and aspire to persistently sail into a world where honesty is no longer a stranger but an all-friendly commoner!

What are your honest opinions about my take? Comment your honest thoughts below!