by Norman Halls, contributor
In our daily activities we don’t think about who or what to trust. We trust our family, friends, doctors and any business we have been dealings with over the years. Most of us don’t really give it much thought. Over the past few years we have had some breach in our financial and personnel information. It is hard for us to find out who is hacking us. We have to rely on the financial institutions or the businesses to inform us what we need to do. Our computer or any other devise can be compromised at anytime and in many cases, we don’t realize it. You can understand why we must keep alert. In Massachusetts, nearly 33,500 residents were affected by a breach.
We just went through a real political campaign where we didn’t know who was telling us the truth. On Thursday, January 4, 2017 the Senate held a hearing on cybersecurity and who disrupted the campaign. The problem we have now is that some political populaces don’t believe that hacking occurred. That is hard to understand because our political leaders have first hand knowledge of the intelligence. Paying attention to the reports is the number one priority.
Are you telling yourself the truth? There is a saying: “You wouldn’t know the truth if you heard it.” Ellie Newman host of ‘That Got Me Thinking’ said: “it takes so much energy to live a lie, and it takes its toll on every aspect of lives. You can’t work stuff out when you aren’t dealing with what’s really true – it’s just confusing, complicated, frustrating and unsatisfying.” You have seen these shopping store displays of rubbish newspapers, who many people quote from. One of them has been a cheerleader for a future leader. We have to pay attention to what is being said, how it being said and who is saying it. Be alert and take a step back. As we all saw during the last campaign many news sources were using, still are, political fact checking. It is unbelievable that someone would say anything on television, radio or in the print media and wouldn’t expect it to be checked.
Over the years our leaders did not exactly tell the truth, often for security reasons. that the person himself did not have all the answers. Case in point is when Gary Powers’ was shot down over Russia. The Soviet Union showed us pictures of the plane and pilot. There was quite of turmoil that the citizens were lied to. We have also seen a few more leaders lie to us. It is not a healthy act to do because it can cause many problems. Black mail is one. Graham Greene wrote: “A man becomes trustworthy when you trust him”. Trustworthy – able to be relied on as honest.In advertising, the Federal Trade Commission enforces truth-in-advertising laws, and it applies the same standards no matter where an ad appears. Recently, we learned of Volkswagen’s tarnished image, due in large to flaws in its corporate governance. According to Ian McVeigh UK Telegraph “Time will tell and it is quite likely that the company allowed a misleading impression of its products to go unchecked.”
There are many questions as to what transpired over the last presidential campaign starting with debates. Trump wrongly said the U.S. gross domestic product was at “zero, essentially.” Real GDP grew at a rate of 2 percent in the third quarter of 2015 and 1 percent in the fourth quarter. During the campaigns, many false statements were made and the repeated to make us believe that it is true. Repeating anything over and over again doesn’t make it true. Statements by someone can change the way we think. That is why we must check the facts. If someone makes a broad statement to prove a point and no one follows up on it, can be disastrous. From the Harvard Business Review “Make Your Values Mean Something, P. M. Lencioni: a CEO was asked, “your employees take quick action and hit all their deadlines?” “no,” he replied, “they’re complacent as hell, which is why we need to make urgency one of our core values.” Employees hearing that statement may just walk away. That employer did not articulate correctly what he needed to have his employees do.
Many of us don’t have the time to check what is being said. We think that someone in influence is going to tell us the truth. Newspapers and news magazines give us the in-depth reporting. The television, radio or texting has only short clips of a story or what someone is talking about. Speaking without knowledge of a topic can be difficult for anyone. I have said to a few: “Think about what you are thinking before you think you should say what you are thinking.” The speaker could get into a lot of trouble or hurt a business and someone. When the audience may have second language listeners, the speaker has to carefully use the right words.
Finally, truth is the foundation of fairness in our society. Mark Twain said: “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
