LET'S LIVE WITHOUT HARMING! LET'S BE HONEST

One way to harm others is dishonesty. Various scientific studies have discovered a positive correlation between honesty and good relationships, happiness, life satisfaction, and good physical and mental health. This also extends to per capita income and the functionality of countries. As if that weren’t enough, this reliability is one of the qualities people value most, even more than intelligence or a sense of humor.

Let’s learn from highly honorable countries like the Nordics or Switzerland. It is a pleasure to live in such countries. They say that being able to trust others and the state contributes to most of these countries consistently leading happiness rankings.  

In fact, the President of Finland explained that his nation ranks number 1 in life satisfaction primarily due to their connection with nature, secondly due to their excellent education, and subsequently due to the trust between people and with authorities. There are indeed well-founded reasons to feel trust in that country, as in an experiment where wallets with money were left in different cities around the world, Helsinki was the only one on the entire planet where its inhabitants returned 100% of the wallets to their owners.

WATCH VIDEO ABOUT HONESTY IN FINLAND

Let us also be upright and instill this quality in our children, as well as in schools. This will also selfishly benefit us, as our children will be more noble towards us and among siblings.

Some typical examples of dishonesty that harm others include the tenant who stops paying rent despite being able to, and the employee who shirks duties and dedicates part of their paid time to personal matters or deletes emails with customer orders to have less work. Or the employer who, to optimize profitability, imposes exhausting workdays (without offering the option of shorter, albeit less remunerated, shifts) that cause some employees to burn out, which is emotionally painful to the point of potentially leading to suicide.

Other examples include the woman who emotionally blackmails her partner when it suits her, making their life miserable to get what she wants, or who, in a divorce, tries to fleece them using dishonest tactics or files a false domestic violence complaint against them. Or the man who tries to dominate his spouse, sometimes even through physical force. Or someone who fails to fulfill their part of a contract or agreement even though the other party has fulfilled theirs. You’ve probably been a victim of non-compliance at some point, and it bothered you, didn’t it?

And then there’s the squatter without the explicit or tacit consent of the owner, especially when they also appropriate or destroy part of what’s inside the property, as well as the corrupt politician who selfishly steals or wastes taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Or the prevaricating tax inspector who demands undue amounts from taxpayers, according to the law, to earn an undeserved bonus.

And the builder who takes a down payment to construct a house and then disappears with the money. Or the civil servant who stays home falsely claiming to be sick, or who goes to work but does little in exchange for the salary paid by taxpayers with the sweat of their brow. Or the insurance company that tries to compensate far below the real value of damages, the airline that refuses to pay compensation for lost luggage, or the media outlets that sell out to the highest bidder and manipulate instead of telling the whole truth and reporting objectively.

And we also have the freeloaders who ask for favors too easily, trying to get more than they give. Or the opportunist who, able to work, resorts to trickery by claiming a disability pension, minimum living wage, or other types of aid to live permanently at the expense of others.

In reality, the list could be much longer, but all these cases always share the same common denominator: seeking win-lose relationships with others, where the rogue or abuser tries to gain at the expense of others.

The lack of integrity is so widespread that thousands upon thousands of precepts in a multitude of laws and regulations are necessary to prevent it, as well as numerous judges, prosecutors, and police officers. And despite all this, in many countries there are MILLIONS with M of open judicial proceedings, often due to a lack of rectitude, plus many more abuses that are not legally challenged.    

Do you prefer to live in a place where you are deceived, let down, and taken advantage of, or in a more civilized one where you know you can trust those around you? The answer is obvious, and therefore, to achieve a better world to live in, a culture of honesty is fundamental, which basically includes 2 things.

Firstly, creating freely consented relationships and agreements that are win-win, meaning mutually beneficial where everyone gains. This is without prejudice to occasions where lose-win relationships may be justified with individuals who cannot fend for themselves.

The second pillar of rectitude is compliance, that is, strictly executing our part of agreements.

It is advisable that we not only apply this integrity ourselves with zeal but also teach it to our children from an early age. Furthermore, it is important that schools instill the value of honesty and trustworthiness year after year, INTENSELY, both in ethics, values, or equivalent subjects and generally in all areas of the school, with teachers correcting any type of abusive behavior.

WATCH VIDEO ABOUT HONESTY IN NORWAY

If the Vikings, who engaged in pillaging, conducting raids where they stole, raped, burned, and enslaved people to then sell them, have over time become modern Scandinavians who are among the most upright and civilized in the world, why shouldn’t any other human society be able to undergo such a transformation?

Do you want to contribute to this change? A first step you can take, besides being honest yourself, is to spread this message across all your social networks and to all or most of your contacts.

Thank you very much for sharing.