Pandora's Honesty Box

The Honesty Box. I'm sure everyone has ran into these. Popularized on facebook, it's just like it sounds, it is a box that you can type a comment to the owner without your name being logged. Therefore, you can say what you want/feel without having repercussions come to you. Wait. Stop. Honesty: fairness and straightforwardness of conduct. That definition is ripped straight out of M-WOD. Now...if honesty is straightforwardness...then why are we being anonymous? Isn't that the opposite of being straightforward? Yes, we are telling the person what we think, we tell them something that may help them, but we aren't being straightforward. We're hiding behind this cloud of anonymity.

Now, before you stop reading and thinking that I'm saying you should say everything honestly and to their face, let me stress that this IS NOT what I'm about. Because as American humorist Don Marquis once quipped, "Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control." Let's face it, somethings are just plain left unsaid! If your typing 'noone likes you and you're selfish and arrogant' into the honesty box, stop and think. How is that in any way, shape, or form helping the person who will be receiving it? It won't. Plain and simple. You are not actually being honest, you are being scathing to that person. Maybe it is true, the whole nine yards, but is it going to actually accomplish anything? No. That person is going to look in that box, and do one of a few things. If they are as arrogant as they seem, they will laugh it off. If they still have a soul, then maybe they will become disheartened for a moment, but then go back to their ways. The third, and most likely option is they will get suspicious and start hating who they THINK wrote it. May not be who wrote it, but they will get the blame anyways. As far as I can see, nothing positive has came out of this scenario and this type "honesty" is just plain detrimental to the social structure. If you really do have this horrible issue with a person, it should be said in person, and worked out. The "Honesty Box" should be the last thing used.

So, is honesty really always the best policy?

S.T.