Don’t Mind the Cameras

Let them see your black heart, baby.

I’ve been thinking about this on and off for a few months now. What determines who you are: your thoughts, or your actions?

Of course our thoughts affect our actions, that much is plain. If you think it’s going to rain, you’ll carry an umbrella to work. If you think someone is really annoying, you might avoid them or try to annoy them back, or tell them they’re being a friggin’ idiot. In that regard, our thoughts determine who we are. But what if thoughts didn’t influence actions?

Say someone was a flawless actor. He can not stand most of the people he interacts with on a daily basis, but never lets this on. He’s always cheerful, kind, liberal with the compliments. In his mind, he’s making scathing remarks and being very judgmental, but no one knows.

Who is this man? Is he a good man? Surely the people in his life would say so. If he indeed never messed up, never lost his temper, never once so much as cracked this very not genuine facade even in confidence with a friend, what is he? On the “inside”, he’s a jerk. On the “outside”, a very nice man.

This concept interests me so much because I can’t really decide on a solution.

I suppose another factor comes into play here, and that’s his intentions. What’s the purpose behind him being nice to the people he dislikes? Some kind of moral compass, or is someone paying him off to do so? I guess in that light, it’d be easier to determine his true nature.

It’s funny how intention changes things completely. If you were stood up on Saturday night by a friend at a restaurant and were unable to get a hold of them, you might be kind of mad. If they called you the next morning and said they were very sorry for not showing up, but they were mugged on the way to meet you and woke up just now in the hospital, of course your anger towards them would vanish into sympathy and concern. On the other hand, if they called you and said that something cooler came up that evening and they forgot about you, the anger might remain. Either way, Your Saturday night remains unchanged. Only the discovery of their intentions affects your present emotion. I just find it interesting.

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2 Responses

  1. DaveC says:

    Interesting concept. Ultimately, we can say that God knows our hearts, but to everyone else, it’s possible to present the appearance of being as polite as we want. Or to have the best/worst intentions, only to have that misinterpreted, or taken another way.

    But is being honest the correct solution when being honest means being a jerk? Or is there a line where one can communicate both honestly and tactfully?

    I think I’m struggling with that too.

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  2. Colette says:

    Boy do I ever know what you mean about misinterpreted intentions! Story of my life =P

    But yeah. Honesty. That’s a hard one! There has to be a line… but where! Maybe that comes down to intention, too. Why are you being so brutally honest… to help or to hurt? Makes sense to me. But it doesn’t necessarily make things easier.

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