THE HONESTY CRISIS: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World by Christian B. Miller




Is honesty still a Virtue in 2026? Well yes, though it's under siege, writes Christian B. Miller in THE HONESTY CRISIS: Preserving our most treasured virtue in an increasingly dishonest world  (Oxford University Press. This book is a rare investigation of a value essential for humanity, despite our runaway "for profit everything" culture. Miller's position about honesty is also rare. 

Though a Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest, who previously published Moral Psychology (2021, Oxford), his literary voice reminded me of Emerson's in Nature and Self Reliance.  Investigating what exists in human character and our world, Miller is no smug academic championing obsolete values. Honesty is still the virtue people most value in public and private character. The human spirit suffers from casually accepted deceit.

Students' growing inability to resist having AI write their papers is a serious concern to Miller. What's the harm in using such "tools?" Perhaps honesty is overrated, creating difficulty?  Is there real harm in a student's "little white lie?" Miller asks, who benefits if  AI content replaces that of students learning to write content? What's the impact on a student's confidence and self-respect? 

Truth be told, there's a big difference in what lies behind and below such "white lies." What's going on in our minds and hearts matters. Miller explains, "There's a complexity to being an honest person, a way to live differently." In this book you realize the emotional price, especially in habitual deceit. Lies are one kind of dishonesty. Talking BS to gain an advantage, is another. And does it really help, in the long run?

Making up a story or giving an answer to benefit yourself, is dishonest. Same way stealing is dishonest, hypocrisy and self-deception are dishonest. An honest person doesn't intentionally distort facts. Thinking it's "okay" is self-deception." We all know this.  So a hidden doubt about oneself is sown. People, who live with this kind of recycled "truthfulness," often complain about rules, integrity, authority. We, as a society, live with this fall-out. 

Who cares? We now live in a world of deep fakes, online porn, anonymous chatrooms, infidelity websites, not to mention the mayhem of  AI in education. Our social media disseminates fake news and, though many people realize it, they are often too inured by media to counter it. (For young people seeking role models, there's the big lie that "anyone" can be a celebrity or a billionaire. And the personal consequences of valuing and pursuing such "glamour" can be huge.)

Yet honesty, altruism, the ability to look beyond one's desires, are virtues that are still valued.( As we all know, they even show up in media, as AI "Reels" about leaders of the past). Miller doesn't condemn our media age, his concern is how people can continue to be honest with themselves and others they care about. THE HONESTY CRISIS looks at how our values in media, impact us, as human beings,and our  relationships. 

In his look at Internet Pornography and dishonesty, he considers not the morality of porn or fantasy for regular viewers but the changes that occur, when dishonesty is introduced into a couples' bedroom. For some, it's a pathway to legitimize cheating. The issue, says Miller, is not just the medium but the rationalization, the cover-up, the hypocrisy and cheating. Because relationships are built on honesty, trust, and mutual commitment, if people are dishonest to themselves, their marriages suffer.

THE HONESTY CRISIS includes models of misinformation, both belief and dissemination, in how news is shared, A key point is that "sometimes the sharing of news on social media appears to bypass belief altogether and instead be driven by other factors." What those factors are has been studied. Among them are: There is a significant disconnect between perceived accuracy and the willingness to share fake news. Though people can often tell what is fake news and real. There is one criteria for sharing based on social media expectations, and another about honesty. The fascinating studies in this book pinpoint how humans comprehend and react to a variety of social media. 

Miller also discusses ways to counter dishonesty, some already  implemented. Assignments for students can be ones only they can write. There are truth pledges that can preserve honesty. But, as Miller shows, we're in crisis now and the stakes are high. Caving to dishonesty as a norm, destroys the fabric of human life. Marriage, families, friendships, commerce all depend on trust. 

Huge technological and cultural change, affects the human species--how we're wired. Ways to adapt mean not giving in. Consider the exercise of human honesty. Read THE HONESTY CRISIS. See what you think.

S.W.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Age of Madness by David Maine Aug-Red Hen Press

The Age of Madness by David Maine, Red Hen Press I first thought Regina, the darkly ironic central character in David Maine's The Age of Madness, was a chick-lit standard, the successful professional woman, who knows something's missing from her life. Almost a caricature of the type, Regina's a runner obsessed with her performance, a fervent health food consumer, a home-owner fixated on light white spaces,classical music, peace and quiet. But this Regina is a psychiatrist,  a hard-headed rationalist, a non-believer, who doesn't suffer fools easily and yet suspects she is one. Maine cracks open her facade to reveal a woman shell shocked by the simultaneous deaths of her husband and son. "Facing the facts," Regina wonders if she's the cause--the evil feminist, who forced her husband to abandon literature and become a househusband.  Was this the reason for his suicide or homicide-suicide?  She's obsessed with the question of what happened. And so are...
Read more

MY INTERVIEW W/CARLA SARETT ON A CLOSET FEMINIST, her romantic comedy for thinking women

Image
3/29 I did this interview with Carla Sarett, novelist, short story writer and poet.  https://youtu.be/bAxQKhTz98c      at SMOL small press fair.  if you have interest. 3/4/22 A Closet Feminist (Unsolicited Press, 2/7/22) is an old fashioned new romance set in pre-Covid New York, Philadelphia and L.A., as a young woman finds herself.  I like Emma Roberts for the role of  Bella, a smart, funny self critical young woman overly aware of being too skinny, demanding, lazy and just weird to attract a man that she might want. She becomes a graduate student almost by default. It's the "almost" that's at issue, since Bella is a woman who doesn't yet know her own strengths. On the far side of twenty, she only knows she needs to be on a path. As the story opens, Bella's got a job she barely does and considers herself without ambition, a person who would rather watch movies all day than work. Her tolerant boss also knows she's not living up to her potential. So B...
Read more

THE SECOND CHANCE CONVENIENCE STORE by KIM HO-YEON is universal, real, moving, even if it's a million-copy bestseller from Korea (Harper PerennIal)

Image
  The SECOND CHANCE CONVENIENCE STORE is a novel about a convenience store that's a million-copy international bestseller from Korea. Unless a Noble-winner, books from Asia aren't often translated for our audiences. Because of the bestseller status, I cynically expected this story to be simple, sentimental, outside our sophisticated book culture of ideas and bestselling romantasy novels. Yet the characters and setting are so unexpected, real and heart-rending, it nullifies our western cultural expectations. Stories of  "second chances" are rare, especially if failure involves "cliches"--addictive behaviors, homelessness, mental illness or other misfortunes better left to the Salvation Army. We may be subconsciously superstitious; a "cross-your heart "prayer (there but for the grace of God/chance go I), when we pass unfortunates in the street or drop a dollar in a plastic cup. Korea isn't all that different. Like us, they are believers in the ro...
Read more