Why You Must Never Lie And Hurt Someone - Jordan Peterson

Like, you don't communicate in a false manner, because if you do, you'll warp the structure that guides your actions. And you will absolutely, absolutely, 100% suffer for that. I mean, one of the things I've learned as a clinical psychologist is that I've never seen anyone... It's really a terrifying thing. I've never seen anyone get away with anything. Ever. The chickens always come home to roost. So, and sometimes it might, you know, let's say you get away with something. It's like, yeah, you think so, man. You wait five years from now, seven years from now, it'll come back. Is that karma? It's more like, yes, I think it's the same idea. But it's more like, you can't, you don't have the power to manipulate reality. Like, you have the power to bring about reality in some sense, because you confront potential. And through your actions and your communicative intent, you turn potential into reality. But you don't have the, you don't have the power to bend reality without it snapping back at you. You don't think so? So you don't think visionaries and influencers have the ability to bend reality? No, I don't think they bend it. I think that they, they, they... I mean, you can bring new things into being, but you can't, you can't get away with a false hope. No, you can definitely bring new things into being. You can't get away with a false hope? Yes, that's it. Maybe, okay, makes sense. And you can't get away with weak thinking either. Because, I mean, any more than you can get away with improper action, it just doesn't work. So you're contending, it's why, I mean, one of the themes in my writing is the danger of falsehood. And at any, at every level, it's like, well, if you tell the truth to the degree that you can, or at least don't lie, I think that's rule eight, then you have reality on your side. You got to decide. You want reality on your side, or do you want reality against you? I wouldn't recommend the whole reality against you thing, because you're not going to win. You're going to get flattered. And so I'm very careful with what I say, and I'm very careful with what I write. Like, I try to, if I write something down, it's not an opinion. I mean, obviously it is, because it's my, my thoughts. But it's, it's, I try to take those sentences and beat them to death. I'm trying only to leave on the paper things I cannot get under and flip over. One of the things that you're counseled to do, let's say, if you do a lot of media interviews, is to figure out what it is that you want to accomplish with the media interviews. So you have a goal. It's like, here's what I want to accomplish with this interview. And, and potentially there's some use in that. But another way of going about it is to just say what you think and see what happens. That's an adventure, because you don't know what the outcome is going to be. So, look, there's this old idea that it's necessary to have faith in the truth. And so here's, here's a way of thinking about that. Someone asks you a question, and you might think, well, here's the outcome I want, and so here's how I'm going to answer that question. So that's one way of approaching it. But another way of approaching it is, you ask me a question, I'm going to think about the answer. And I'm just going to tell you what I think. And it doesn't matter what the outcome is, because I'm willing to see what the outcome will be. Predicated on the idea that there isn't a better outcome than the one that truth produces. Even if it's harsh and terrible in the short term, and sometimes it is, it's like there isn't a better way of doing it. Now, you might say, well, how do you know that? And the answer is, well, I don't know that. That's why it's an article of faith. Because I believe, and I believe this deeply, the being that you produce as a consequence of telling the truth is good, by definition. Even though it's harsh, and often uncomfortable, because you get in trouble. The trajectory that we walk towards heaven or hell is fundamentally dependent on individuals. Now, I don't really understand how the universe can be constructed so that that's true. But I believe it is true. Solzhenitsyn said, for example, that one man who stops lying can bring down a tyranny. And he did that, so he knew. And he wasn't the only person who did that. But we each bear ultimate responsibility, in some sense, for the direction of our mutual striving forward. I think that's the core doctrine of the West, that each individual is sovereign in their divine and ultimate worth. And there's a commensurate responsibility with that. And so, I thought, when I realized that, partly from reading Solzhenitsyn, partly from reading Jung, partly from reading Dostoevsky, Frankl, many people were pointing in that direction. Nietzsche, to some degree. That it was necessary for us to become aware of that and to take that responsibility on our own shoulders. And so I've been talking to people, as individuals, ever since, at McGill, at Harvard, at the University of Toronto, and then more broadly, publicly, inviting people to the adventure of their life, let's say, the moral adventure of their life, driven by my conviction that it actually matters whether you get your act together. Like, it matters eternally, in some sense. It matters in a heaven or hell manner. You know, in a totalitarian state, people are locked into tyranny because every individual lies. Every single one. And that's the grip of the totalitarian state. And to the degree that you are living in deceit, let's say, you're contributing to tyranny in the hell of the companies. And not in some little way. Not only are you not saying what you should say when you should say it, but you're not doing what needs to be done when you need to do it. You're turning a blind eye and allowing it to happen. But you're also not bringing into the world what you could bring into the world, if you brought everything you could into the world. And that lack on your part of bringing into the world what could be there, if you would reveal your light, let's say, that's cataclysmic. And that's a painful realization. But it goes along with being a locus of divine worth. And so I believe that. I believe that if you fail to say what you know to be true, you corrupt the world. You corrupt being. If you lie, you corrupt being. Corrupted being is hell. And if we all lie enough, then we have hell. And whether we all lie enough to bring about hell is actually dependent, in much larger part than it's that you might desire to admit. It's dependent on your choice. And so one of the reasons we love doing what we're doing, I would say, is because we come to these events with thousands of people, and everybody at the event is there because they're trying to aim up. And often doing so, especially in contrast to their previous efforts. And that's unbelievably motivating and wonderful to see, but also necessary. We are very powerful now, all of us, with our incredible technological gadgets, our computational power, and that's going to get way more, we're going to get way more powerful than that really fast. And so you better get your act together, because children can't wield that sort of power without adults. And so I'm very optimistic, because things could be maybe better than we could even imagine. But if we want to, we can sure make them worse. So we all have to decide. Are we aiming up? With all we've got? Or are we aiming down? I think it was Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens, I think, who said, one of the advantages to telling the truth is that you don't have to remember what you said. And that, God, that's worth listening to, because... So there's a bunch of things I've learned as a clinician. And one of them is, because you're often in really weird situations with people, if you're a clinician, because things happen that don't happen normally, and you don't know what to do. And so what I've learned is, I just say what's happening, whatever it is, regardless of what it is. I'll just try to describe it as accurately as I can, and not worry about, in some sense, not worry about the consequences. You know, like I'm not going out of my way to cause trouble, but if you're in a really, and I'm telling you, this can save your life at times, especially if you're dealing with someone who's paranoid, who's really paranoid. You do not lie to someone who's paranoid and violent. Because as soon as you lie, you're aligned with the forces that are persecuting you. And they're going to be... Because paranoia makes people hypervigilant, like they're on amphetamines. In fact, you can make people paranoid by giving them enough amphetamines. And you can make paranoid people more paranoid by giving them amphetamines. So they're hypervigilant, because they feel that everything is predatory against them. And so they're watching you like you would not believe, way more than you're watching them. And if you flicker a lie while you're talking to them, and they're really on the edge, you're done. So it's one thing to really know, if you're ever in a really bad situation, and you don't know what to do, you tell the truth, minimally. Don't disclose too much. That's just another lie. You tell the truth minimally, and carefully, and hopefully. And you might get out of it. You might get out of it. But if you falsify it, look the hell out. So, the truth is a real mechanism of protection in dangerous situations.