the uncomfortable truth reflective essay

The Uncomfortable Truth

The following is an excerpt from my #1 New York Times Bestseller Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope . Just like The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck questioned our conventional wisdom on what makes us happy, Everything Is F*cked questions our assumptions on what makes life worth living. You can order it here .

If I worked at Starbucks, instead of writing people’s names on their coffee cup, I’d write the following:

One day, you and everyone you love will die. And beyond a small group of people for an extremely brief period of time, little of what you say or do will ever matter. This is the Uncomfortable Truth of life. And everything you think or do is but an elaborate avoidance of it. We are inconsequential cosmic dust, bumping and milling about on a tiny blue speck. We imagine our own importance. We invent our purpose—we are nothing.

Enjoy your fucking coffee.

I’d have to write it in really tiny lettering, of course. And it’d take a while to write, meaning the line of morning rush-hour customers would be backed out the door. Not exactly stellar customer service, either. This is probably just one of the reasons why I’m not employable.

But seriously, how could you tell someone, in good conscience, to “have a nice day” while knowing that all their thoughts and motivations stem from a never-ending need to avoid the inherent meaninglessness of human existence?

Because, in the infinite expanse of space/time, the universe does not care whether your mother’s hip replacement goes well, or your kids attend college, or your boss thinks you made a bitching spreadsheet. It doesn’t care if the Democrats or the Republicans win the presidential election. It doesn’t care if a celebrity gets caught doing cocaine while furiously masturbating in an airport bathroom (again). It doesn’t care if the forests burn or the ice melts or the waters rise or the air simmers or we all get vaporized by a superior alien race.

You care, and you desperately convince yourself that because you care, it all must have some great cosmic meaning behind it.

You care because, deep down, you need to feel that sense of importance in order to avoid the Uncomfortable Truth, to avoid the incomprehensibility of your existence, to avoid being crushed by the weight of your own material insignificance. And you—like me, like everyone—then project that imagined sense of importance onto the world around you because it gives you hope.

Is it too early to have this conversation? Here, have another coffee. I even made a winky-smiley face with the steamed milk. Isn’t it cute? Here, I’ll wait while you Instagram it.

Okay, where were we? Oh yeah! The incomprehensibility of your existence—right. Now, you might be thinking, “Well, Mark, I believe we’re all here for a reason, and nothing is a coincidence, and everyone matters because all our actions affect somebody, and even if we can help one person, then it’s still worth it, right?”

Now, aren’t you just as cute as a button!

See, that’s your hope talking. That’s a story your mind spins to make it worth waking up in the morning: something needs to matter because without something mattering , then there’s no reason to go on living. And some form of simple altruism or a reduction in suffering is always our mind’s go-to for making it feel like it’s worth doing anything.

Our psyche needs hope to survive the way a fish needs water. Hope is the fuel for our mental engine. It’s the butter on our biscuit. It’s a lot of really cheesy metaphors. Without hope, your whole mental apparatus will stall out or starve. If we don’t believe there’s any hope that the future will be better than the present, that our life will improve in some way, then we spiritually die. After all, if there’s no hope of things ever being better, then why live—why do anything?

Here’s what a lot of people don’t get: the opposite of happiness is not anger or sadness. 1 If you’re angry or sad, that means you still give a fuck about something. That means something still matters. That means you still have hope. 2

No, the opposite of happiness is hopelessness, an endless gray horizon of resignation and indifference. 3 It’s the belief that everything is fucked, so why do anything at all?

Hopelessness is a cold and bleak nihilism, a sense that there is no point, so fuck it—why not run with scissors or sleep with your boss’s wife or shoot up a school? It is the Uncomfortable Truth, a silent realization that in the face of infinity, everything we could possibly care about quickly approaches zero.

Hopelessness is the root of anxiety, mental illness , and depression . It is the source of all misery and the cause of all addiction. This is not an overstatement. 4 Chronic anxiety is a crisis of hope. It is the fear of a failed future. Depression is a crisis of hope. It is the belief in a meaningless future. Delusion, addiction, obsession—these are all the mind’s desperate and compulsive attempts at generating hope one neurotic tick or obsessive craving at a time. 5

The avoidance of hopelessness—that is, the construction of hope—then becomes our mind’s primary project. All meaning, everything we understand about ourselves and the world, is constructed for the purpose of maintaining hope. Therefore, hope is the only thing any of us willingly dies for. Hope is what we believe to be greater than ourselves. Without it, we believe we are nothing.

When I was in college, my grandfather died. For a few years afterward, I had this intense feeling that I must live in such a way as to make him proud. This felt reasonable and obvious on some deep level, but it wasn’t. In fact, it made no logical sense at all. I hadn’t had a close relationship with my grandfather. We’d never talked on the phone. We hadn’t corresponded. I didn’t even see him the last five years or so that he was alive.

Not to mention: he was dead. How did my “living to make him proud” affect anything?

His death caused me to brush up against that Uncomfortable Truth. So, my mind got to work, looking to build hope out of the situation in order to sustain me, to keep any nihilism at bay. My mind decided that because my grandfather was now deprived of his ability to hope and aspire in his own life, it was important for me to carry on hope and aspiration in his honor. This was my mind’s bite-size piece of faith, my own personal mini-religion of purpose .

And it worked! For a short while, his death infused otherwise banal and empty experiences with import and meaning . And that meaning gave me hope. You’ve probably felt something similar when someone close to you passed away. It’s a common feeling. You tell yourself you’ll live in a way that will make your loved one proud. You tell yourself you will use your life to celebrate his. You tell yourself that this is an important and good thing.

And that “good thing” is what sustains us in these moments of existential terror. I walked around imagining that my grandfather was following me, like a really nosy ghost, constantly looking over my shoulder. This man whom I barely knew when he was alive was now somehow extremely concerned with how I did on my calculus exam. It was totally irrational.

Our psyches construct little narratives like this whenever they face adversity, these before/after stories we invent for ourselves. And we must keep these hope narratives alive, all the time, even if they become unreasonable or destructive, as they are the only stabilizing force protecting our minds from the Uncomfortable Truth.

These hope narratives are then what give our lives a sense of purpose. Not only do they imply that there is something better in the future, but also that it’s actually possible to go out and achieve that something. When people prattle on about needing to find their “life’s purpose,” what they really mean is that it’s no longer clear to them what matters, what is a worthy use of their limited time here on earth 6 —in short, what to hope for. They are struggling to see what the before/after of their lives should be.

That’s the hard part: finding that before/after for yourself. It’s difficult because there’s no way ever to know for sure if you’ve got it right. This is why a lot of people flock to religion because religions acknowledge this permanent state of unknowing and demands faith in the face of it. This is also probably partly why religious people suffer from depression and commit suicide in far fewer numbers than nonreligious people: that practiced faith protects them from the Uncomfortable Truth. 7

But your hope narratives don’t need to be religious. They can be anything. This book is my little source of hope. It gives me purpose; it gives me meaning. And the narrative that I’ve constructed around that hope is that I believe this book might help some people, that it might make both my life and the world a little bit better.

Do I know that for sure? No. But it’s my little before/after story, and I’m sticking to it. It gets me up in the morning and gets me excited about my life. And not only is that not a bad thing, it’s the only thing.

For some people, the before/after story is raising their kids well. For others, it’s saving the environment. For others, it’s making a bunch of money and buying a big-ass boat. For others, it’s simply trying to improve their golf swing.

Whether we realize it or not, we all have these narratives we’ve elected to buy into for whatever reason. It doesn’t matter if the way you get to hope is via religious faith or evidence-based theory or an intuition or a well-reasoned argument—they all produce the same result: you have some belief that (a) there is potential for growth or improvement or salvation in the future, and (b) there are ways we can navigate ourselves to get there. That’s it. Day after day, year after year, our lives are made up of the endless overlapping of these hope narratives. They are the psychological carrot at the end of the stick.

If this all sounds nihilistic, please, don’t get the wrong idea. This book is not an argument for nihilism. It is one against nihilism—both the nihilism within us and the growing sense of nihilism that seems to emerge with the modern world. 8 And to successfully argue against nihilism, you must start at nihilism. You must start at the Uncomfortable Truth. From there, you must slowly build a convincing case for hope. And not just any hope, but a sustainable, benevolent form of hope. A hope that can bring us together rather than tear us apart. A hope that is robust and powerful, yet still grounded in reason and reality. A hope that can carry us to the end of our days with a sense of gratitude and satisfaction.

This is not easy to do (obviously). And in the twenty-first century, it’s arguably more difficult than ever. Nihilism and the pure indulgence of desire that accompanies it are gripping the modern world. It is power for the sake of power. Success for the sake of success . Pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Nihilism acknowledges no broader “why?” It adheres to no great truth or cause. It’s a simple “Because it feels good.” And this, as we’ll see, is what is making everything seem so bad.

This is an excerpt from the first chapter of my #1 New York Times Bestseller Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope . You can order it  here .

• See: A. J. Zautra, Emotions, Stress, and Health (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 15–22. ↵
• I don’t use the word hope in this book in the way it is typically used academically. Most academics use “hope” to express a feeling of optimism: an expectation of or belief in the possibility of positive results. This definition is partial and limited. Optimism can feed hope, but it is not the same thing as hope. I can have no expectation for something better to happen, but I can still hope for it. And that hope can still give my life a sense of meaning and purpose despite all evidence to the contrary. No, by “hope,” I am referring to a motivation toward something perceived as valuable, what is sometimes described as “purpose” or “meaning” in the academic literature. As a result, for my discussions of hope, I’ll draw on research on motivation and value theory and, in many cases, try to fuse them together. ↵
• M. W. Gallagher and S. J. Lopez, “ Positive Expectancies and Mental Health: Identifying the Unique Contributions of Hope and Optimism ,” Journal of Positive Psychology 4, no. 6 (2009): 548–56. ↵
• This is almost certainly an overstatement. ↵
• See Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: Free Press, 1973). ↵
• Am I allowed to cite myself? Fuck it, I’m going to cite myself. See Mark Manson, “ 7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose ,” MarkManson.net , September 18, 2014. ↵
• For data on religiosity and suicide, see Kanita Dervic, MD, et al., “ Religious Affiliation and Suicide Attempt ,” American Journal of Psychiatry 161, no. 12 (2004): 2303–8. For data on religiosity and depression, see Raphael Bonelli et al., “ Religious and Spiritual Factors in Depression: Review and Integration of the Research ,” Depression Research and Treatment vol. TK, no. TK (2012). ↵
• Studies done in more than 132 countries show that the wealthier a country becomes, the more its population struggles with feelings of meaning and purpose. See Shigehiro Oishi and Ed Diener, “ Residents of Poor Nations Have a Greater Sense of Meaning in Life than Residents of Wealthy Nations ,” Psychological Science 25, no. 2 (2014): 422–30. ↵

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The Uncomfortable Truth About Truth

On self-awareness, societal change, and running from honesty..

In the boundless sphere of letters and words, many have the ability to wield the pen with artistry and skill. Because of this, in the literary world, where giants stand tall and shadows of newcomers can stretch long into nothingness, there's a perpetual uncertainty for many. “Am I ever going to be one of the greats? Or will I always be one of the many, seeking a sliver of recognition?”

It’s never been my driving force to dwell upon this. The way I've always perceived my duty as a writer, in this expansive galaxy of literature’s stars, is quite simple: to be a voice of truth. In the winding alleys of narratives, to tell the truth is to rise above the noise, to stand firm against the seductive tides of ignorance and evasion. If in my journey I remain tethered to this simple principle, then perhaps I have grazed the hallowed realm of greatness, not in recognition, but in deed.

In Retrospect is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

As a writer, I attempt to elevate the pressing issues of our era, to be a voice rising above the clamor that draws attention to the complexities and challenges of our time. This, however, does not imply an absence of the capacity to observe, relish, and reflect upon the varied beauties of life, both grand and subtle, or that my pen is devoid of personal interests and passions.

Any decent writer, at their core, is a multifaceted individuals. While one facet might capture the raw, gritty realities of our contemporary world, another might bask in the glow of life's simpler pleasures — the delicate bloom of a spring flower, the laughter shared amongst close friends, or the serenity of an Anita Baker or Joni Mitchell album.

That being said, in today's tumultuous world, where crises loom large, the role of writers as truth-tellers is more vital than ever. With gun violence rampant, it's essential to look beyond the act and understand the deeper social and political underpinnings. Economic despair isn't just statistics; it's the real-life struggles of overburdened families and debt-laden graduates. The age-old issue of racial strife demands constant exploration of historical context, generational trauma, and systemic faults. Women's rights, despite progressive waves of feminism, face destruction, necessitating reflections that capture the essence of these battles. And this is just the surface of our times.

But trying to be a truth-teller, particularly a Black truth-teller, comes with a great deal of difficulty because it bucks trend and forces introspection and accountability. This is an endeavor not for the faint of heart. In our modern age, an age defined by instantaneous gratification, sound bites, and endless scrolling, the practice of introspection feels almost archaic. And accountability? It's a word that many relegate to dusty old books and moral tales, not something to be actively sought after and practiced.

Our society, for all its advancements, has in many ways conditioned us to evade deep reflection and dodge responsibility. Quick solutions, fleeting trends, and the endless allure of toxic positivity often leaves little room for self-examination and the slow, patient work of change. The digital age, with its proliferation of information, has also created echo chambers that shelter most from confronting uncomfortable truths. Especially about themselves.

It's against this backdrop that my endeavor to speak honestly is often met with resistance. Being labeled "divisive," "difficult," or "burdensome" is not a reflection of my intent but a reaction to the discomfort that truth can bring. These words, more often than not, are a defense mechanism — a way for individuals to deflect the mirror I'm attempting to hold up to them. A mirror I often openly also hold up to myself.

My intention is not to alienate or judge. I aim to share insights drawn from perspectives and experiences, hoping that they might pave the way for deeper understanding and collective betterment. It's a challenging path, no doubt. Every truth I present is an invitation for readers to confront their beliefs, evaluate their actions, and perhaps reconsider long-held notions. It's not about proving a point or claiming moral superiority but about fostering dialogue, understanding, and growth.

But, I was recently graced with a peculiar observation about what writing of mine is deemed acceptable by some.

My reflections on race, both systemic and personal, are far better received than any other truths I pen. That’s not to say that people aren’t still reluctant, but they are most certainly more open minded.

Perhaps the foundational groundwork laid by literary giants like Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Zora Neale Hurston has softened the soil for the seeds I'm attempting to plant. These figures, through their poignant prose and evocative narratives, managed to carve a space for dialogues on race. Work such as theirs, coupled with the happenings of 2020, pushed boundaries, challenging the status quo with fearless dissections of racial dynamics. As a result, there's more of a precedent for receiving these discussions, even if with a begrudging openness.

Again, it's still difficult, but there is more of a noticeable willingness to engage.

Yet, as my experiences have shown, when my lens of truth turns to issues beyond racism, the waters become murkier, revealing a landscape of defensiveness that many might find astonishing. Take, for instance, the reactions to the last three essays I shared publicly.

In one essay, I delved into the intricacies of individual greedflation , in another, I reflect on the burdens we places on Gen Z , and in the third, I discuss the basic right to joy that people in poverty deserve .

Each of those pieces shares a central theme: a call for introspection about our roles as individuals and collective communities in the stagnation and decline of our world. It is about understanding the interconnectedness of our actions and their ripple effects on the global and hyper-local stages. The pieces invite readers not only to critique the societal problems they observe but also to evaluate their own participation in creating or perpetuating these issues.

The essence of this self-reflective ask is straightforward: It isn't enough to identify and criticize the flaws in our society. Instead, we must look inwards and interrogate our own complicity in these matters. After all, we can't genuinely claim to seek solutions when many of us, knowingly or unknowingly, contribute to the problems. It's a call for holistic accountability, where the blame isn't exclusively assigned outwardly, but inwardly as well.

However, the demand for such accountability, though fundamental to transformative growth, is rarely welcomed. For many, it's far more comfortable to remain as passive observers or critics, detached from the implications of the issues at hand. Acknowledging one's role, even if indirect, in societal challenges can be unsettling, if not downright threatening. It challenges the sanctity of our self-perception, forcing us to confront and, in many cases, redefine our understanding of self in relation to the world.

This raw, unfiltered call for self-awareness, though necessary, is never without its consequences. As I mentioned before. The potency of the essays seems to have struck a nerve. In the short span of a month following the publication of those pieces, I was met with a significant backlash, quantified by the loss of thousands of subscribers. Many of whom were paying subscriber accounts. The exodus of these people, more than just a numerical decline, signified a resistance to confronting uncomfortable truths. The essays became mirrors, and not everyone liked or was prepared for the reflections they saw.

Many people don’t want to hear that maybe they shouldn't be pushing today's problems onto future generations, hoping they'll clean up the mess. They don’t want to consider that people in poverty deserve the same luxuries as the more affluent. Nor do they want to read about how their chase for individual wealth, often celebrated, can mask underlying exploitative practices.

It's human nature to seek comfort and shy away from inconvenient truths. Yet, in today's world, several unsettling narratives demand our attention.

The loss of these people, while disheartening, underscores the very essence of the message I've been trying to convey. Change, real and substantive change, begins with introspection. It starts with understanding that each of us, in varying degrees, is a stakeholder in the state of our world. It's not about inducing guilt but awakening responsibility. If the loss of subscribers is the price for kindling this awareness in even a handful, it's a cost I'm willing to bear.

But the issue that sits with me and is especially disconcerting goes beyond the mere metrics of subscriber count. It exposes two profound concerns that speak to the very fabric of our societal understanding and acceptance.

Firstly, even as people claim to be advocates for anti-racism, their selective acceptance of narratives from Black individuals reveals a problematic bias. By willingly engaging with only certain facets of Black thought — most commonly those they find convenient or in alignment with their preconceived ideas — they inadvertently tokenize and compartmentalize the Black experience.

This selective hearing creates a dangerous dichotomy. On one hand, they applaud themselves for being allies, yet on the other hand, they unknowingly perpetuate a form of prejudice by narrowing down the range of Black perspectives they deem acceptable or worthy of their time. This isn’t true allyship. True allyship demands listening, not just when it's comfortable or aligns with one's beliefs, but especially when it's challenging, and calls into question long-held assumptions.

Secondly, the skewed reactions to my varied writings underline another unsettling trend: the prevalent self-centered approach to progress. For many, the lens through which they view societal advancement is tinted by their own personal experiences and needs. While personal experiences provide a necessary and valuable perspective, they shouldn’t limit our understanding of broader societal challenges. If progress is only viewed through the prism of personal gain or interest, then the broader, more inclusive idea of societal advancement is lost. This sort of myopic perspective will continue to fragment society in segmented operate in silos, where people only advocate for causes that directly impact them.

This severely limits the collective empathy we can extend to diverse issues and experiences beyond our own. It also stunts the growth of a holistic societal fabric, where each strand understands, supports, and uplifts the other. In this segmented approach, our efforts become disjointed, and the collective force that could drive monumental change is diluted.

For true societal progression to occur, there’s an urgent need to broaden our horizons, to step outside the comfort zones of our personal narratives, and genuinely engage with the diverse perspectives that shape our world. Even when uncomfortable.

In an age defined by disinformation, alternative facts, and deep-seated polarizations, our responsibility to discern and uphold the necessary truths has never been more paramount. Yet, paradoxically, we find ourselves in an era where those who stand up to speak the truth — the truth-tellers — often face censure, vilification, or even apathy. Instead of recognizing their courage and the necessity of their role, society, more often than not, seems keen to shoot the messenger.

We are in a time where we should be seeking and supporting the truth-tellers, not running from and punishing them. When we shun or disregard the voices that challenge our preconceived notions, biases, or comfort zones, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to grow, evolve, and better understand the intricate world around us.

This isn't to say that every proclaimed "truth" should be accepted without scrutiny. The spirit of discernment is essential, especially in an age awash with information. But there's a vast difference between critically evaluating a perspective and dismissing or penalizing it solely because it's inconvenient or challenging.

Any amongst us who are truly interested, in fostering an inclusive, progressive society, must not only be open to hearing difficult things but actively seek them out. Supporting truth-tellers means amplifying their voices, engaging in dialogues, and understanding the nuances of their perspectives. It means recognizing that truth, in its essence, is often multi-faceted and cannot be confined to binary interpretations.

Instead of pandering to the loudest or most comforting voices, we should prioritize those who value authenticity, insight, and constructive discourse. It’s one of the few ways we can move this world of ours forward together.

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My Inconvenient Truth: Reflections on Al Gore's Impact 10 Years On

In May of 2006, Al Gore's now-classic climate change documentary " An Inconvenient Truth "   was released. The movie   won an Oscar in the Featured Documentary category, and Gore was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize , along with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The nominating committee recognized Gore and the IPCC "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

For many, it was as if Al Gore  invented global warming . Or that global warming invented Al Gore, I'm not sure which. What is certain is the enormous impact the movie and Gore's advocacy through the years had on raising awareness about the, well, inconvenient truth of climate change.

To be perfectly candid, I think "raising awareness" is among the canon of over-hyped phrases like "paradigm shift." Meaningful at their core, these idioms are overused, often with a pretentious tinge, to the point of diffusing much of their impact and credibility. This is ironic given that we live in transformative times ourselves, witness to a global paradigm shift of raised awareness.

It's tricky.

I read Gore's 1992 nonfiction book " Earth in the Balance ,"   so I was no stranger to his environmental advocacy. But "An Inconvenient Truth"   brought the issue to the forefront of public consciousness like little did before or since (except the changing climate itself), for better and worse. I can only speak anecdotally, but I believe Gore is likely the most famous  straw man alive -- and for some, also the most reviled. He raised awareness about global warming so masterfully that he has become synonymous with it, often not in a good way .

This may sound like I'm being critical of his work. If I do admit some ambivalence, it is not for lack of admiration and inspiration for what Gore has done and is doing in the public campaign to push for climate action. I've heard Gore speak on several occasions. I've gone through his Climate Leadership training . He is passionate and sincere about his work.

Perhaps my ambivalence is directed more toward the climate change narrative itself than to Gore's engagement with it. It is a narrative too often oversimplified, tortured beyond all recognition of civility and imbued with an ideological fervor that has little to do with the task at hand.

And it's for all this that I'd like to take the opportunity of the 10-year anniversary of "An Inconvenient Truth"   to thank Al Gore for changing my life.

An inconvenient journey

From a very young age I was a budding Malthusian.

But while contemplating this doom, I also found great joy in the beauty of the world around me. My ambivalence was my own.

I acquired the domain name "globalwarmingisreal.com" several years earlier, but after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth"   in May of 2006 I decided to focus my efforts on what I cared about most and launched the official blog   GlobalWarmingisReal.com  (GWIR).  It was a humble launch, but 10 years on it is still going strong.

What's more, I've had an opportunity to temper my general Malthusian worldview with a sense of guarded optimism. While I've endured over the years the expected heaving of hate and fear , I've also seen firsthand the hard work of many talented, passionate and brilliant people focused on moving the world toward a better future. That's what gives me inspiration to engage with these pathfinders, tell their story and each day try a little bit harder to help light the way.

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself," Robert Kennedy said in a 1966 speech in South Africa, "but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." We all have within us the power to send out "tiny ripples of hope" that will converge into a mighty current of sweeping renewal.

Few of us have the influence or reach of Al Gore, but we all have a responsibility to pursue the harder path before us, so that others may follow. Each in our own way.

Is Al Gore the reason I am concerned about global warming? No. But Gore and his documentary helped set me out on the path I am on today , and upon which I intend to remain for the rest of my life

"My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world ." -- Adrienne Rich

Tom is the founder, editor, and publisher of GlobalWarmingisReal.com and the TDS Environmental Media Network. He has been a contributor for Triple Pundit since 2007. Tom has also written for Slate, Earth911, the Pepsico Foundation, Cleantechnia, Planetsave, and many other sustainability-focused publications. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists

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The Uncomfortable Truth

Winner of the 2018 Rocky Mountain Regional Emmy Award and five Best Documentary awards!

When the son of Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, dives into the 400 year history of institutional racism in America he is confronted with the shocking reality that his family helped start it all from the very beginning. A comprehensive and insightful exploration of the origins and history of racism in America told through a very personal and honest story.

$3.99 - $19.99

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The Uncomfortable Truth

Posted by ms. krista terrell, apr 21, 2021 0 comments.

One of my favorite books is “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own” by Eddie Glaude Jr., a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University.

The first chapter of the book is titled “The Lie.” In it, Glaude explains:

“the lie is more properly several sets of lies with a single purpose; a ‘value gap’ of an idea that in America white lives have always mattered more than the lives of others, then the lie is a broad and powerful architecture of false assumptions by which the value gap is maintained. These narrative assumptions that support the everyday order of American life, which means we breathe them like air. We count them as truths. We absorb them into our character.”

I see the “the lie” in action every day, even in the arts and cultural sector.

The Arts & Science Council (ASC) , the local arts agency for Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina, was caught up in “the lie” for nearly 60 years and engaged in practices that led to inequitable funding to organizations and creative individuals.

In June 2019, ASC’s Board of Directors approved a Cultural Equity statement. It creates a framework to set organizational policies and practices and offers external visibility for the organization’s commitment to cultural equity. It also guides ASC’s decision to cap operating support grants for large institutions to fund small and mid-sized organizations so they can build their capacity and thrive.

The board agreed that if it is committed to doing this work, ASC must report to the community on its progress.

In the summer of 2020, I led ASC’s internal Cultural Equity workgroup in the creation of ASC’s inaugural Cultural Equity report . Our intention and commitment were to tell the truth and acknowledge ASC’s historical failure in cultivating an equitable and inclusive cultural community; publicly assess the steps ASC has taken to dismantle inequitable systems and policies within ASC; and outline measurable actions we are undertaking to advance our values of cultural equity. Three ASC Board members, including the chair, also were involved in creating the report.

“History is not a GPS, but a diagnostic guide.” —Jon Meacham

It was important to the team to not focus the report on the “new and shiny” things ASC has been doing over the past eight years in the equity space. We wanted to share, as in the words of author, songwriter, and educator Alice Randall, “the untold story, the rest of the story, the suppressed story.”

Therefore, we went back to 1958, the year ASC was founded. We poured through data and documents that showed the steps and missteps of the organization. One example was firing its majority white board that represented affluent zip codes in 1992 to become more diverse, and sliding back to an all-white board. We also learned which organizations benefited most from ASC’s practice of inequities from 1991-2020.

It was important that ASC told its own story and not that of other organizations. Many are engaged in their own review of past practices and discussing how their organization should address longstanding inequities.

The report was not done in a vacuum. Experts in the history, equity, cultural transformation, philanthropy, and public relations space served as external readers. Their feedback was valuable.

When the report was published on February 24, 2021, it felt liberating.

“Whitewashing” the report

While I knew the facts in the report were startling, I never thought I would experience so intimately the uncomfortableness, the defensiveness, and the scaredness of white people reacting to the unvarnished truth.

I don’t know which upset people more—the words “white, Western, Eurocentric” to describe legacy organizations as they were when ASC was founded, or a visual showing how, from 1991 to 2020 and due to ASC’s inequitable grant making practices, nine institutions each received more in operating support than all ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American) organizations combined.

One president of a legacy organization told me, “I’m all for changing inequities as it relates to access,” but when I asked their thoughts about changing inequities related to funding, I was met with a long pause. If ASC wants its funding to go further, I was told, it should invest more in legacy organizations with existing infrastructure instead of grassroots organizations.

This is “the lie” at work. Think about what was said through the lens of equity. Equity is about everyone having the resources they need to move along together.

Another legacy organization wrote a Letter to the Editor . Some asked why I did not include the work they are doing and why they could not have been readers of the report and provide feedback. I was accused of not being inclusive.

I kept thinking, “You are not reading the report. You are uncomfortable with the truth and being defensive.”

What I know for sure, based on their behavior and reactions, is they would have tried to whitewash the truth for their comfort.

I, nor the team, was not going to let that happen.

There is great fear with change and the truth, especially playing out in the public realm. As a Black woman leading a legacy organization, I know I am seen as the manifestation of that fear. They would not have felt as threatened by my white male predecessor. He would be met with “What are you doing? Think of the financial repercussions of this!”

I know because he told me.

“Beyond the Sound Bites”

ASC is preparing to have a series of Community Listening Sessions about the equity report called “Beyond the Sound Bites.” We are using that title because people are hanging on to sound bites like “8, white, Western, Eurocentric” and our apology in the Introduction section of the report, and are not reading the report. I look forward to sharing our learnings from those sessions in another blog post on this topic.

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How to Write a Reflective Essay: Easy Guide with Pro Tips

Defining What is a Reflective Essay: Purpose + Importance

Being present is a cornerstone of mindfulness and meditation. You must have often heard that staying in the moment helps you appreciate your surroundings, connects you with people and nature, and allows you to feel whatever emotions you must feel without anxiety. While this is helpful advice as you become more focused and avoid getting lost in thought, how can you truly appreciate the present without reflecting on your past experiences that have led you to the current moment?

We don't say that you should dwell on the past and get carried away with a constant thought process, but hey, hear us out - practice reflective thinking! Think back on your previous life events, paint a true picture of history, and make connections to your present self. This requires you to get a bit analytical and creative. So you might as well document your critical reflection on a piece of paper and give direction to your personal observations. That's when the need for reflective essays steps in!

In a reflective essay, you open up about your thoughts and emotions to uncover your mindset, personality, traits of character, and background. Your reflective essay should include a description of the experience/literature piece as well as explanations of your thoughts, feelings, and reactions. In this article, our essay writer service will share our ultimate guide on how to write a reflective essay with a clear format and reflective essay examples that will inspire you.

How to Write a Reflective Essay with a Proper Reflective Essay Outline

To give you a clear idea of structuring a reflective essay template, we broke down the essential steps below. Primarily, the organization of a reflective essay is very similar to other types of papers. However, our custom writers got more specific with the reflective essay outline to ease your writing process.

Reflective Essay Introduction

When wondering how to start a reflective essay, it is no surprise that you should begin writing your paper with an introductory paragraph. So, what's new and different with the reflection essay introduction? Let's dissect:

• Open your intro with an attention-seizing hook that engages your audience into reflective thinking with you. It can be something like: 'As I was sitting on my bed with my notebook placed on my shaky lap waiting for the letter of acceptance, I could not help but reflect, was enrolling in college the path I wanted to take in the future?'
• Provide context with a quick overview of the reflective essay topic. Don't reveal too much information at the start to prevent your audience from becoming discouraged to continue reading.
• Make a claim with a strong reflective essay thesis statement. It should be a simple explanation of the essay's main point, in this example, a specific event that had a big impact on you.

Reflective Essay Body Paragraphs

The next step is to develop the body of your essay. This section of the paper may be the most challenging because it's simple to ramble and replicate yourself both in the outline and the actual writing. Planning the body properly requires a lot of time and work, and the following advice can assist you in doing this effectively:

• Consider using a sequential strategy. This entails reviewing everything you wish to discuss in the order it occurred. This method ensures that your work is structured and cohesive.
• Make sure the body paragraph is well-rounded and employs the right amount of analysis. The body should go into the effects of the event on your life and the insights you've gained as a consequence.
• Prioritize reflecting rather than summarizing your points. In addition to giving readers insight into your personal experience, a reflective stance will also show off your personality and demonstrate your ability to handle certain challenges.

Reflective Essay Conclusion

The goal of your reflective essay conclusion should be to tie everything together by summarizing the key ideas raised throughout, as well as the lessons you were able to take away from experience.

• Don't forget to include the reasons for and the methods used to improve your beliefs and actions. Think about how your personality and skills have changed as well.
• What conclusions can you draw about your behavior in particular circumstances? What could you do differently if the conditions were the same in the future?

Remember that your instructor will be searching for clear signs of reflection.

Understanding a Reflection Paper Format

The format of reflective essay greatly differs from an argumentative or research paper. A reflective essay is more of a well-structured story or a diary entry rife with insight and reflection. You might be required to arrange your essay using the APA style or the MLA format.

And the typical reflection paper length varies between 300 and 700 words, but ask your instructor about the word length if it was assigned to you. Even though this essay is about you, try to avoid too much informal language.

If your instructor asks you to use an APA or MLA style format for reflective essay, here are a few shortcuts:

Reflective Essay in MLA Format

• Times New Roman 12pt font double spaced;
• 1" margins;
• The top right includes the last name and page number on every page;
• Titles are centered;
• The header should include your name, your professor's name, course number, and the date (dd/mm/yy);
• The last page includes a Works Cited.

Reflective Essay in APA Style

• Include a page header on the top of every page;
• Insert page number on the right;
• Your reflective essay should be divided into four parts: Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.

Reflective Essay Writing Tips

You may think we've armed you with enough tips and pointers for reflective writing, but it doesn't stop here. Below we gathered some expert-approved tips for constructing uncontested reflection papers.

• Be as detailed as possible while writing. To make your reflective essay writing come to life, you should employ several tactics such as symbolism, sentence patterns, etc.
• Keep your audience in mind. The reader will become frustrated if you continue writing in the first person without taking a moment to convey something more important, even though you will likely speak about something from your own perspective.
• Put forth the effort to allow the reader to feel the situation or emotion you are attempting to explain.
• Don't preach; demonstrate. Instead of just reporting what happened, use description appropriately to paint a clear picture of the event or sensation.
• Plan the wording and structure of your reflective essay around a central emotion or subject, such as joy, pleasure, fear, or grief.
• Avoid adding dull elements that can lessen the effect of your work. Why include it if it won't enhance the emotion or understanding you wish to convey?
• There must be a constant sense of progression. Consider whether the event has transformed you or others around you.
• Remember to double-check your grammar, syntax, and spelling.

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Reflective Essay Topic Ideas

As a reflective essay should be about your own views and experiences, you generally can't use someone else's ideas. But to help you get started, here are some suggestions for writing topics:

• An experience you will never forget.
• The moment you overcame a fear.
• The most difficult choice you had to make.
• A time your beliefs were challenged.
• A time something changed your life.
• The happiest or most frightening moment of your life so far.
• Ways you think you or people can make the world a better place.
• A time you felt lost.
• An introspective look at your choices or a time you made the wrong choice.
• A moment in your life you would like to relive.

You may find it convenient to create a chart or table to keep track of your ideas. Split your chart into three parts:

• In the first column, write key experiences or your main points. You can arrange them from most important to least important.
• In the second column, list your response to the points you stated in the first column.
• In the third column, write what, from your response, you would like to share in the essay.

Meanwhile, if you're about to enroll in your dream university and your mind is constantly occupied with - 'how to write my college admissions essay?', order an academic essay on our platform to free you of unnecessary anxiety.

Reflective Essay Sample

Referring to reflective essay examples can help you a lot. A reflective essay sample can provide you with useful insight into how your essay should look like. You can also buy an essay online if you need one customized to your specific requirements.

How to Conclude a Reflective Essay

As we come to an end, it's only logical to reflect on the main points discussed above in the article. By now, you should clearly understand what is a reflective essay and that the key to writing a reflective essay is demonstrating what lessons you have taken away from your experiences and why and how these lessons have shaped you. It should also have a clear reflective essay format, with an opening, development of ideas, and resolution.

Now that you have the tools to create a thorough and accurate reflective paper, you might want to hand over other tasks like writing definition essay examples to our experienced writers. In this case, feel free to buy an essay online on our platform and reflect on your past events without worrying about future assignments!

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An Uncomfortable Truth Is Better Than a Comfortable Lie Essay Example

• Pages: 5 (1263 words)
• Published: September 19, 2017
• Type: Essay

Some people say that an uncomfortable truth is better than a comfortable lie. People do not want to live a life that is false, phony or somehow an illusion. This concept is explored in Peter Weir's 1998 film The Truman Show and Arthur Miller's classic play Death of a Salesman. The Truman Show explores one man's struggle to uncover the truth about the world he lives in. In Death of a Salesman, the responder witnesses the unfolding of one man's struggle as he comes to terms with an uncomfortable truth (one which he has avoided through fantasy & delusion for years).

Read this The Claw of Archimedes

Both of Hess texts raise an important question; can the truth really set a person free? In Death of a Salesman, the insecure W

ily Loan is chasing a comfortable lie rather than facing the uncomfortable truth. He convinces himself that he is successful, well- like and attractive. He constantly exaggerates his success: "l averaged one hundred and seventy a week in the year of 1928. " He is under the impression that one must be attractive and well-liked in order to be successful, and that he and his sons are destined for greatness.

When this lie is shattered, however, it becomes too much for Wily to bear. This is presented in the scene where he tries to get a raise and get taken off the road'. This is a significant turning point in Willis life as his hopes are dashed and he begins to doubt his future as a salesman; "And there was a question in my mind as to whether selling had a future for me.

" This is the beginning of the end for Wily, as he becomes even more depressed and emotionally unstable.

The responder is able to see how Wily is delusion about the life off salesman and disappointed with the loss of camaraderie in his work. Willis experience of reality ND illusion reflects the context within which the text was created, American during the late sass. This was a time when people were longing for order ; control after having survived the Great Depression, World War One and World War Two. To escape the fear of uncertainty about the stability of their lives, people formed romantic and idealized views on life.

The American Dream was the belief that anyone could be successful and achieve financial prosperity through hard work. Wily Loan was a victim of this comfortable life, because no matter how hard he worked he was still unable to be successful. Willis demise is his refusal to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth; that neither he nor his sons will be successful. Linda and Happy also believe that the Loan family is on the brink of success. This is highlighted when Linda says in the final scene, "One last payment and we were free and clear. Unlike the rest of the family, however, Biff recognizes that he and his family and constantly deceiving themselves. This is particularly evident when he is trying to open Happy eyes to the uncomfortable truth about Willis demise, and he says, "The man don't know who we are!... We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house. Wily entirely indulges in this comfortable life that he and his sons are successful

through his vivid fantasies, and ultimately through his suicide. Potentially Wily would have been happier had he not avoided the uncomfortable truth in his life.

The breakdown in relationship between Biff and Wily also shows that the uncomfortable truth is better t Han a comfortable life. By holding on to the comfortable lie and not telling Linda about the other woman, Wily caused great pain for Biff who ultimately lost respect for his father. Arthur Miller uses flashbacks from Willis mind to convey the blurring of reality and illusion. Through flashbacks to Willis past, the responder is able to understand the premise of Willis instability. The Truman Show follows the story of one man's struggle to uncover the truth about the world he lives in.

Truman is unaware that he is living a false reality and that everyone is his world is Just acting. The world of the Truman Show reflects the context within which it was created; America during the late sass. This was a time when the American people were fearful of war (weapons of mass destruction ; nuclear testing), rapidly advancing technology (space exploration) and the formidable intro that governments exercised over their citizens. To escape from their fears, people formed romantic views of times gone by.

The world that has been created for Truman in Shaven reflects the idealized views of the American Dream, such as a housewife, vintage clothing and furniture and a well-paid desk Job. Christofis says at the beginning of the film that "we accept the reality of the world in which we are presented. " Truman initially accepts the reality of the world he lives in, but

oaf term further investigation, discovers that he has been living a false reality. When Truman escapes from this false reality, the audience is forced to return to their reality and confront their fears, Just as Truman overcame his.

In this case, an uncomfortable truth is better than a comfortable life because Truman is able to be set free from his false reality after he discovers the truth. The director's use of characterization conveys that Truman is living a false reality. Trauma's marriage is a lie, his Job is a life, and his best friend Maroon deceives him when he says, "The last thing that I would ever do is life to you. " There are contrasting features between The Truman Show and Death of a Salesman. Both Truman and Wily Loan are still searching for satisfaction in their lives.

The world of Shaven has been created as "perfect" and Truman should be happy with everything he has been given, yet he still endeavors to know what lies beyond the world he inhibits. Wily Loan believes that he is attractive, well liked and successful, but also holds the notion that there must be more to life than being a salesman. An uncomfortable truth is better than living a comfortable life for Truman, because uncovering the truth provides him with the ambition to be set free from his false laity.

However in Death of a Salesman, facing up to the uncomfortable truth became too much for Wily to bear and ultimately lead to his suicide. In this respect, it could be argued that he would have been better to keep chasing the comfortable life. The context of

the world within which each text was created relates to the e message of reality and illusion that each text exhibits. People who lived in America during the late sass chased the comfortable life of the American Dream to help them escape from their fears about the uncertainty and instability of their own lives.

Therefore they looked towards romanticizes ideals of life so they would not have to confront their fears. People in the context of The Truman Show believed in a comfortable life so they would not have to face up to their own reality. In conclusion, an uncomfortable truth is better than a comfortable life because the truth has the ability to set a person free. Truman was set free from the illusion of his false reality when he learned the truth. Although the revelation of truth ultimately lead to Willis suicide, he was able to be set free from the bonds of illusion that had kept him prisoner for many years.

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Example Essay #1 (Prompts): Uncomfortable Truths

People love to ask why. Why do you wear a turban? Why do you have long hair? Why are you playing a guitar with only 3 strings and watching TV at 3 A.M.—where did you get that cat? Why won’t you go back to your country, you terrorist? My answer is…uncomfortable. Many truths of the world are uncomfortable. A couple of examples are that an equal number of pets are euthanized as are adopted each year and that cats roam the streets at night because they are actually looking for owners with better food. One of those statements is a horrible truth and the other is a thought I had in the shower. Either way, the point still stands. Uncomfortable truths are just that, uncomfortable. The answer to ‘Why won’t you go back to your country, you terrorist?’ is the most uncomfortable answer I can give, barring the current status of aboriginal street cats.

Sikhs like myself have borne the brunt of the backlash through our forced subjection to ...

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Confronting uncomfortable truths

Our work reflections resources, by katherine lim / 23.02.2023.

What we’ve been learning from attempting to decolonise our research practice.

Colonisation has left a horrible legacy, and the dispossession, genocide and repression of Indigenous people and their cultures continues today. As an intersectional feminist organisation with predominantly settler/coloniser roots, it’s crucial for us to attempt, however imperfectly, to play our part in dismantling it.

We’ve recently begun the difficult process of attempting to decolonise our own research practice. It’s the start of a long journey, involving hard conversations, self-reflection and listening. We’re releasing a new paper, to share our recent lessons with others from similar backgrounds who are hoping to do the same. Here’s what we’re learning.

Whether we intend to or not, everyone who benefits from colonialist systems, structures, and worldviews is implicated in perpetuating them. Including, of course, us here at EQI. We, as an organisation, are largely based in an urban, high-income context, with a majority settler/coloniser staff. Many of us are also university educated with tertiary degrees, which affords a certain level of privilege. And so, we benefit from a power imbalance weighted in our favour, from the language we grew up speaking, to where we’re able to travel, to what we can write about and why.

If we don’t attempt, however imperfectly, to counter the impacts of colonisation within and outside of ourselves, we risk perpetuating unequal power structures that cause harm. In our sector, settler/colonial organisations are often accused of enforcing Eurocentric worldviews on others, devaluing and delegitimising Indigenist and non-western knowledge, and taking from communities whilst providing little in return. Settler/colonial societies are implicated in the colonial project and have a role to play in dismantling it. By acknowledging this, we can try to be part of the solution.

De colonisation has a long history, built on decades of work led by Indigenist, decolonial and intersectional feminist scholars and practitioners. We don’t lay claim this knowledge, but rather, we learn and benefit from it every day, and are grateful for the labour and hard-won wisdom which is required to bring it into the world.

If you’re just starting on your journey to decolonise your research or social change practice, we highly recommend you read the work of leading scholars and organisations in the space, ahead of our own. Here’s a few we recommend:

• Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
• Enacting Research Ethics in Partnerships with Indigenous Communities in Canada: “Do it in a Good Way” by Jessica Ball and Pauline Janyst
• Creating equitable South/North Partnerships: Nurturing the vā and voyaging the audacious ocean together by Ofa-ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki
• Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research from AIATSIS

At EQI, we’ve researched and reported on the rates and drivers of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and gender-based violence (GBV) all around the world. Although the primary underlying cause is always gender inequality, what’s less often talked about is that the rates of VAWG and GBV in communities who have or are experiencing colonisation are frighteningly, and disproportionately high.

For example, in countries which have been colonised, intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is 50 times more likely than in non-colonised countries (Mannell et al. 2021) and colonialism is one of the key drivers of gender-based violence against First Nations women in Australia (Our Watch, 2018; Alsalem, 2022). To us, it's become increasingly untenable to seek to understand or end VAWG and GBV without the lens of colonisation and decolonisation.

Attempting to decolonise our practice has not been easy. For us, it’s required considering all of the ways in which so-called ‘Western’, European, and Eurocentric values and hierarchies are embedded in our work, and also how they intersect and overlap with other forms of oppression, including capitalism, white supremacy, and heteropatriarchy. This, unsurprisingly, is a huge process, and calls into question almost every part of our work – from what we prioritise, to how we seek funding, to the ways we work in communities, to the words we use, and how we use our data (and who it is owned by).

We also come across many barriers and challenges, internal and external, including navigating our own unconscious bias as we work with partners and communities in the pursuit of more equitable partnerships, finding adequate resourcing to do deep work with the care that is required, and negotiating our relationships with clients at the same time as sometimes attempting to advocate for and educate them on decolonial practices. We don’t get it right 100% of the time, and we often are required to compromise and put in place ‘more equitable’ and ‘more ethical’ practices, rather a perfect solution. We’re still learning, and have so much more to do, but decolonisation is a long-term process. This means we must remain committed to it, even if it makes us uncomfortable.

Throughout this process, we’re finding that no single component of knowledge production and research needs decolonising. All its parts deserve scrutiny. Here’s some principles which we use in decolonising our own research practice, which we hope will be helpful for you:

Learn, reflect and be reflexive. Acknowledge how your own beliefs, attitudes, identities and life experiences shape how you work, based on an interrogation of your own bias, world view and positionality within intersecting systems of oppression.

Flatten hierarchies and develop equitable partnerships. Colonialism is grounded in inequity and hierarchy. Wherever possible, work in non- (or at least less- ) hierarchical ways and engage in fair and meaningful partnerships within your own sphere of influence.

Centre Indigenous and local knowledge lived experience and contributions. Most researchers of coloniser/settler backgrounds have had their perspectives shaped by colonial ideologies. As a result, Indigenous and ‘non-Western’ ways of knowing have been viewed as ‘unscientific’ and, therefore, ‘less than’ (Smith 2012). Therefore, to restore equity and justice to research, aim to centre non-Western frames of knowledge at the forefront of your practice.

Practice reciprocity and be of benefit to communities. Recognise that research must also never be driven by the sole intentions of the researcher (and/or funders, governments or other stakeholders who hold relative power) but be relevant and beneficial to the wishes of communities with which the research is conducted. True reciprocity isn’t transactional and is often ongoing.

Conduct ethical and safe research. Use an ethical and culturally safe protocol. This is vital for decolonising research and should adhere to the principle of ‘do no harm’ and to the highest research ethics standards.

Be transformative. Ensure that the research process itself – rather than just the recommendations which emerge - works to transform unequal power structures, including harmful and rigid gender norms, and gendered, colonial structures and other systems of oppression.

Ensure accessibility. Research findings cannot meaningfully inform policy and programming if it is only accessible to a select few. Work to ensure the ways in which knowledge and research are created and shared are accessible to a wide variety of people, including affected communities, so they can use it meaningfully.

Shifting the power imbalances in knowledge production and research is everyone’s job. Ending VAWG is impossible without it. And ethical, feminist, and decolonial research practices should become the norm.

We look forward to keeping you updated as we continue this journey of decolonising our practice. If you have any experience in these areas and have some lessons to share, get in touch with us! We would love to hear from you.

You can also download our full paper below, and we’ll be hosting a webinar on 17th March 2023. Find out more information, and register to attend, here .

Get in touch: [email protected]

Alsalem, R. (2022) Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls: Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences . Human Rights Council, Fiftieth Session. Geneva.

Mannell, J., et. al. (2021). Decolonising violence against women research: a study design for co-developing violence prevention interventions with communities in low and middle income countries (LMICs). BMC Public Health , 21(1), 1147.

Our Watch. (2018). Changing the picture: A national resource to support the prevention of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children . Retrieved from: ourwatch.org.au/resource/changing-the-picture

This post was written on behalf of The Equality Institute (EQI), an organisation is led from, and largely based in, a colonial/settler context (Naarm/Melbourne, Australia on unceded Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country, though we have also have staff based in Timor-Leste and Central Australia).

It was written by Katherine Lim (she/her), an Asian-Australian communications and social change professional. Having grown up and lived on Gadigal/Dharawal land (Sydney) and Naarm (Melbourne), and been educated within a Western system, she has often benefitted from the colonialist dispossession of First Nations peoples, whilst also experiencing impacts of racism and the intergenerational trauma of colonisation. This informs her writing, work, and commitment to decolonisation.

The above content is based on the paper ‘Confronting Uncomfortable Truths: Learning lessons for decolonising The Equality Institute’s research and knowledge practices’, prepared for EQI by Sarah Homan (she/her) with input from Loksee Leung and members of EQI’s research team. A full positionality statement for this piece of work is contained within the report.

Seven Steps to Speak Your Uncomfortable Truth

Abigail needs to tell her adult son Mark that she thinks he has a drinking problem.

Simon needs to tell his wife Lisa that he’s afraid he doesn’t love her anymore.

From time to time, we all find ourselves in a tough spot. Something looks wrong or feels wrong, and we need to say something difficult. Something painful that may hurt someone we care about, but which nevertheless must be said.

Abigail and Simon have some tough decisions to make. Do they speak up and risk hurting their loved ones? How do they say it? Would it be better to just keep it to themselves? At least then they wouldn’t cause anyone pain.

Many people in these situations choose the last option. Sometimes it feels easier and kinder. Unfortunately, that is typically the worst choice. Uncomfortable truths seldom disappear on their own. And they have far more power to hurt when they remain unspoken.

The Effects of Childhood Emotional Neglect

If you grew up in a family that discouraged frank discussion, emotional expression, or honest discourse (Childhood Emotional Neglect, or CEN), having a conversation like this may feel simply wrong to you. And even if you do decide to speak your truth, you may not have been able to learn the emotion skills you need to do it right.

Abigail and Simon could easily do this wrong. Abigail could blurt out her message when Mark has been drinking. Simon could pick a fight with Lisa, and leave the house angrily, never explaining why and leaving Lisa baffled and unresolved.

Or each could go about speaking his truth in a caring and compassionate way.

7 Guidelines for Speaking Your Uncomfortable Truth

• Choose your moment: timing is everything. Choose a quiet, open moment to maximize being heard.
• Imagine being the other person: put yourself in her shoes. If you were to receive this message, how would you want to hear it?
• Keep your own emotions in check: practice helps with this. Practice relaying the message, either in your own head, in the mirror, or to a friend, until you’re able to say it in a compassionate and caring tone. If you are angry or accusing when you relay your message, the other person will feel immediately defensive. And defensive people lose their hearing. They do not take things in.
• Avoid extreme words.  The words “always” and “never” raise defenses. Avoid accusations. Use “I feel,” not “you always,” for example.
• Listen: after you speak your truth, be quiet and listen to the other person. Avoid arguing, because that will bury your message in anger.
• Recognize that most difficult things require more than one conversation: your goal in this first talk is to plant the seed. Don’t expect a plant to spring immediately from the earth. Give it some time to take root, and then have another talk.
• Accept that the other person may be hurt: it is okay. Often, the most loving thing we can do is hurt someone. Because honesty shows respect and care, even when it hurts.

The Takeaway

Don’t shy away from speaking your truth. That is not loving, and it will not help.

Make yourself uncomfortable. Do the background work. Take the time, put in the effort, and sit together through the pain. Wait for the seed to sprout, and then revisit the topic with care.

That is what true love and care look like.

To learn more about emotions, emotional needs, and Childhood Emotional Neglect, Take The CEN Questionnaire . It’s free.

To learn how to use your emotions to communicate and connect in your most important relationships see the book Running On Empty No More: Transform Your Relationships .

To learn more about Childhood Emotional Neglect, see my first book  Running on Empty.  

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below

Number 7 for me: I hurt somebody I really cared about but I needed for my own self preservation to stay away from this person [a sibling]. It was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do and I lost a lot of people in the aftermath. I was pressured from my family of origin to “forgive and forget” but I knew that I would never grow if I stayed in this relationship. I found that my focus was entirely on this person and was getting in the way of my marriage. I will always tell the truth but often people really don’t want to hear it. You can’t have “versions” of the truth…it is what it is. I don’t think the conversation was done with a lot of grace. There was lots of frustration and anger, blaming and shaming. But we need to find our voice and we need to speak our truths.

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The uncomfortable truth

The thing with people is that they avoid truth , they seek comfort by seeking lies . That is why they call it the uncomfortable truth , it makes people overwhelmed and it certainly gives them mixed feelings of despair and unmotivation . Observing the big picture makes us realize that we actually do not have a WORLD mission , we are useless , we are born to die . this might seem hard and tough , but I am not trying to make you procrastinate or do drugs or suicide . I am just trying to spell out a truth that is going to make our lives easier and more acceptable because by accepting  that there is no faith , that faith is just anoher useless lie we keep dumping ourselves with to feel important and meaningful , we would probably have more time to live fully and work hard , not by the intention of adding something to the world or being remembered as the most brazen hero of all time , but because you simply enjoy working , and when you start enjoying work , that is when you are going to f*cking add value to the world , but first , be selfish .o

I am a Tunisian 15 years old ish- girl , this is my first and hopefully not last post on TeenInk .

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Favorite Quote: "God hath not given me a spirit of fear, but that of power, love, and of a sound mind."

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Truth Essay Guide - Importance of a Truth Today

Any topic expressing a particular view of truth is a good idea as it's an all-time relevant issue. While working on a truth essay, you should combine examples from real-life, widely-accepted definitions, and personal experience to identify this phenomenon as accurately as possible.

If this writing guide, we will explain how to write an essay about truth, explore the matter in terms of prompts and topics, and provide you with some simple examples and tips.

What to Write in Your Truth Essay?

An essay on such a specific topic isn't a separate type of academic paper - it's just writing with a different subject matter. Defining it is not that easy. Our beliefs and perception of truth may vary depending on subjective experience and even life values. That is why one of the simplest strategies would be to come up with a definition of truth. There, you don't have to argue that lying is evil, and we should be honest with each other. You can just provide a trustworthy definition to the phenomena and analyze the way the world translates its importance. The main sources one can use for this paper are reliable websites and dictionaries.

And what if you're writing a philosophy essay? This is what is preferred the most amongst the college students because Philosophy offers more self-expression. Here, every opinion may be considered relevant if you provide the reader with reliable evidence and reasonable statements. But don't forget about the coherence. While being immersed in your thoughts, you may forget about the essay structure and start beating around the bush. To avoid that, pay attention to the structure of your truth essay and don't neglect to outline your assignment. Here is an example of how you can start this writing:

"I think that truth is one's perception of beliefs and decisions. The contrasting points of view predetermine the way each of us understands this phenomenon and answer the question, 'What is true or false?'. There is only one thing that unites all possible definitions of truth and makes people agree on it. That is something believed to be accurate while the opposite is wrong."

So, a philosophy essay on this topic is based more on the author's opinion than an official definition from the dictionary.

Master Absolute Truth Essay Writing

We've gone through two most popular assignment types that the students of different schools frequently deal with. But there are truth essays with other purposes that we must consider. Look through the following list with short explanations.

• Descriptive. Involving touch, smell, hear, sight, taste, try to describe what a true is by these means.
• Narrative. Create a narration in which the frankness will be a core idea.
• Compare-contrast. Analyze why people express the same or completely different opinions on truth.
• Cause-effect (problem-solution). Consider the consequences the world actually is facing because of the lie.
• Argumentative. Formulate an idea related to the topic and provide arguments showing your statement is true and valid.
• Persuasive. Convince the reader that a certain statement is/is not the truth.
• Reflective. The way you reflect on being honest or telling lies.

So, when you are assigned to write an essay on truth, you may focus on the purpose that interests you the most (unless the type is assigned)

10 Great Truth Essay Topics

There are many students thinking that truth essays are all about "grass is green" and "the moon has craters" issues. The joke is it's not true - there are many great ideas to write about. It depends on which aspect you wish to focus as well as the type of academic paper you have to turn in. Here are some questions to consider:

• The issue of true words through the history of mankind.
• Locke's theories of truth correspondence.
• The link between truth and honesty.
• The challenges of being sincere.
• The consequences of pretending to be someone else.
• The idea of honesty in "Dear Evan Hansen."
• Lies VS Truth: A never-never-ending battle.
• Importance of being honest as a postmodern thought.
• Situations in which lies could be justified.
• Lying to dear people. How do they know about you being dishonest?
• The correspondence theory of truth in everyday life.
• How lying can distort our sense of reality.

The range of possible topic options is far wider - just decide a knowledge of what life aspect, science, or course you can successfully apply in your assignment.

Essay Thesis Statement

Each paper of this type should have a frankness-related thesis statement. That is the main idea of the entire writing that should appear in the opening paragraph (introduction). In your conclusion, you may paraphrase the thesis from the first paragraph to remind people of what you plan to talk about. However, we advise you to make conclusions more valuable than that and come up with thought-provoking ideas.

Essay about Honesty

Now, we're going to provide several examples, and the first one is an essay about truth and honesty. These two terms are interrelated, and one can barely exist without another. You may start with something like this:

"How is telling accurate things related to honesty? Honesty is one of the best human traits as it refers to always being open, no matter how bitter or sweet it is. Honesty is what makes human beings brave and robust, and that is why it is one of the most significant traits of candidates to become a president and other ruling authorities. It can lead to certain problems, but people tend to sympathize with those who are honest. It's an integral part of morality, which is the best policy in relationships; it's a significant building block."

Essay about Lies

Is life worth lying? In an essay about lies, you may compare and contrast two opposites. It is okay if you think that telling lies is more beneficial than being frank in specific cases. Share some examples and try to prove your position by providing relevant evidence. Here's an example that can inspire you:

"Is there a single person in the world who has never told a lie throughout life? Excluding Jesus Christ and some other saints from the Bible, everyone has experienced lies from both sides - telling and being told. A completely honest person is a myth. It's not because all people are bad and insincere. In my essay, I'm going to prove that telling lies in some situations may save one's life."

Importance of Being Frank in Our Life

Here, you should provide enough arguments against lying. You may recall some episodes from your favorite movies or just depict real-life examples when telling lies ended up dramatically for both sides. One of the good examples could be Evan Hansen from the "Dear Evan Hansen" musical. There, the socially anxious boy pretended to be the friend of his classmate who committed suicide to make friends with his family. Then, he becomes a hero in the eyes of other people. It all resulted in a big confusion, and the boy was left with nothing.

Truth Essays for Kids

Such an essay for kids should explain what the matter of truth is from a childish perspective. Avoid using difficult, complex terms from philosophy or other science as your target audience won't understand the text. Try to explain what each complex term means.

"In human frankness, there is essential and biggest virtue. Sincerity refers to speaking exactly what you think and feel, and an honest man never tells a lie. We should start telling only the true things since our early days, and here, a lot depends on our parents. You might have had these conversations with them already. Lying to parents is the biggest sin, so practice being honest with them and people around. You may tell lies only in sporadic cases, ensuring that no one will suffer from it, but benefit."

Custom Truth Essay for Students

On the whole, your essays could be written faster than you think. On WiseEssays.com, we can provide you with a top-notch custom writing anytime. All you need to do is to contact our customer support agents or leave an order on our website. Our professional writers will fill your assignment with relevant facts, convincing examples, and exciting ideas. So, if you're tired of different academic challenges, just rely on our experts!

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Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

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Truth, Meaning and Realism: Essays in the Philosophy of Thought

A. C. Grayling, Truth, Meaning and Realism: Essays in the Philosophy of Thought , Continuum, 2007, 173pp., $19.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781847061546.

Reviewed by Alexander Miller, University of Birmingham

This volume is a collection of revised versions of ten essays apparently written in the 1980s or thereabouts, mainly as invited contributions to conferences. As Grayling admits in his preface, "All the papers are of their time". British philosophy in the 1970s and 1980s was dominated by an approach to the debate between realism and antirealism that was associated with Oxford and championed by Michael Dummett, and according to which the key issue was whether the theory of meaning should take as its central concept the notion of truth or the notion of assertibility , with realism favouring the former and antirealism favouring the latter. Much of the book concerns the realism debate conceived in these terms, and although there are also extended discussions of Putnam's twin-earth examples these are mainly in the context of an exchange with David Wiggins. Grayling's essays are thus also very much "of their place" (Oxford) as well as of their time (1980s).

Although in his early works Dummett had defended the idea that assertibility, and not truth, should be the central concept of the theory of meaning, in later work he -- and Crispin Wright -- suggested that antirealism could after all take the notion of truth to be the central notion of the theory of meaning so long as it was an epistemically constrained notion. Given this way of formulating antirealism there is no need to argue that the notion of assertion can be explained in terms that don't presuppose the notion of truth: even the antirealist can admit that it is a platitude that "to assert is to present as true".

In Essay 1, Grayling puts forward a view of assertion that contrasts with the approach of Wright and the later Dummett. Whereas the Wright-later Dummett view sees the aim of assertion as "the presentation of or laying claim to truth" (p.10), Grayling sees it as "the realisation of certain cognitive and practical goals" (ibid.).

Essay 2 proposes a recasting of the debate between realism and antirealism. Grayling suggests that (a) properly understood realism is not a metaphysical but an epistemological thesis: "that the domains or entities to which ontological commitment is made exist independently of knowledge of them" (p.26); and that (b) it is in fact a second-order debate about whether the realistic commitments of ordinary, first-order discourse are literally true or not, and as such has no implications for "logic, linguistic practice, or mundane metaphysics" (p.30). Grayling returns to these issues in Essays 8 and 9.

An alternative to deflationary and indefinabilist conceptions of truth is offered in Essay 3: "The predicate 'is true' is a lazy predicate. It holds a place for more precise predicates, denoting evaluatory properties appropriate to the discourse in which possession of those properties is valued" (p.32). On this view "there are, literally, different kinds of truth, individuated by subject-matter" (p.36). Grayling backs this up in Essay 4 (which, like Essay 3, is a reworked chapter from Grayling's An Introduction to Philosophical Logic , first published in 1982) with a critique of the indefinabilist position Davidson recommends in "The Folly of Trying to Define Truth". This essay also argues that Davidson's "The Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge" fails to yield a satisfying account of objectivity: in particular "the principle of charity is questionable beyond its heuristic applications" (p.49).

Putnam's famous "twin-earth" argument appears to some to establish that it is essential to Jones's thinking the thought that someone is drinking water in the next room that there is (or has been) some H 2 0 in Jones's environment. In Essay 5 Grayling considers Wiggins's attempt to fuse this construal of Putnam's insight -- "the extension-involvingness of natural kind terms" (p.62) -- with a Fregean theory distinguishing between the sense and reference of such a term. For Wiggins,

Taking the sense of a name as its mode of presentation of an object means that we have two things … : an object that the name presents, and a way in which it is presented. This latter [is] the 'conception' of the object … 'a body of information' -- typically open-ended and imperfect, and hence rarely if ever condensable into a complete description of the object -- in which the object itself plays a role (p.62),

and something similar holds for natural kind terms: "the sense of a natural kind term is correlative to a recognitional conception that is unspecifiable except as the conception of things like this, that and the other specimens exemplifying the concept that this conception is a conception of" (p.65). Grayling suggests that instead of taking senses to be "correlative" to "conceptions" we should instead identify senses with conceptions: "a term's sense is: an open-ended extensible body of information, possession of which enables speakers to identify the term's reference" (p.69). However, this modified account has consequences for the notion of extension-involving sense:

on the minimum specification given for the grasp of the sense of a concept-word, any concept word which applies to nothing retains its sense because what is known by one who understands it is what would count as an exemplary instance of its application if ever one were offered. (p.74)

In consequence, Wiggins was wrong to take it "that the extension-involvingness constraint ensured the realism of the reality-involvingness he took this to entail" (p.75). Related matters are pursued in Essay 6. Grayling rejects Frege's "strong objectivism" about sense, and argues that since the publicity of sense "is essentially a matter of speakers' mutual constrainings of use", it is best construed in terms of "intersubjective agreement in use" (p.85). This has implications for the externalist arguments of Putnam and Burge. Although it is true that meanings are not in the head of any single speaker, "they are in our heads, collectively understood … meaning is the artefact of intersubjectively constituted conventions governing the use of sounds and marks to communicate, and therefore resides in the language itself" (p.89). This shows -- contra Putnam -- that "facts about the physical environment of language-use are not essential to meaning" (p.89). Grayling reaches this conclusion by reflecting on what he calls an "Explicit Speaker", an idealised speaker who knows everything contained in "some best and latest dictionary [which] pooled a community's knowledge of meanings" (p.87). It follows that

when he [an individual speaker with the linguistic community's best joint knowledge at his disposal] says 'water' he intends to refer to water, that is, H 2 0, or if he lives on twin-earth, then to water on twin-earth, that is, XYZ; and so in either case his grasp of the expression's meaning determines its extension, and the psychological state in which his grasp of the meaning consists is broad. But this is not because it is related, causally or in some other way, to water, but rather to theories of water, because he is speaking in conformity with the best dictionary, that is, with the fullest available knowledge of meaning, in accord with the best current theories held by the linguistic community. (p.88)

Grayling does not consider the obvious reply that a defender of Putnam might give: that a 10 th century English peasant's application of "water" to a sample of XYZ is incorrect, and clearly not because of anything to do with the best current theory held by his linguistic community. Moreover, it appears to beg the question against Putnam to assume that, in the late-20 th century scenario that Grayling is concerned with, facts about the physical environment are not essential to grasp the meanings of some of the expressions that appear in "the best current theories held by the linguistic community".

The "Explicit Speaker" reappears in Essay 7. As Grayling advertises in the preface, this chapter suggests that " point is the driving force in interpretation of implicatures by competent speakers of a natural language" (p.vi), and that "this simple insight reveals certain puzzles to be artefacts of inexplictness" (ibid.). According to Grayling:

An Explicit Speaker of his language is one who so uses it whenever he makes an assertion (and mutatis mutandis for other kinds of utterance) he: (1) expresses his intended meaning as fully as, if not more fully than, his audience needs in the circumstances; (2) expresses his intended meaning as exactly as, if not more exactly than, his audience, etc; and (3) is as epistemically cautious as the circumstances do or might require, if not more so, with respect to the claims made or presupposed by what he says. (p.93)

Grayling proposes to deploy this notion of an Explicit Speaker to shed light on the analogues in natural language of the logical constants, presupposition-failure in uses of the likes of "Jones omitted to turn out the light", the distinction between referential and attributive uses of definite descriptions, and Putnam's use of twin-earth type examples. This chapter is difficult to follow. Although it is titled "Explicit Speaker Theory", and although the expression "Explicit Speaker Theory" is mentioned throughout, Grayling never gives a clear and explicit statement of what the theory actually is. The reader is left to work this out from inexplicit hints. We are told, for example, that according to Explicit Speaker Theory "the crux in meaning is the point, which is to be explained in terms of speakers' intentions to mean something on an occasion" (p.92), that "conventional meaning is to be characterised as the dry residue of speakers' meanings, agreed in the language community under constraints of publicity and stability" (ibid.), that "the meanings of expressions in a language are the agreed dry residue of speakers' meanings" (p.105), and that "what the Explicit Speaker does [when he says "the man whom I take to be drinking champagne is happy tonight"] is what all speakers are enthymematically doing anyway" (p.102). (Grayling does not attempt to explain what it is to do something enthymematically: again, the reader is left to work this out for himself.) In the light of this, readers with less sunny temperaments than the present reviewer are likely to be irritated by comments like "One should surely recognise all this as obvious" (p.100).

That Essay 8 is very much of its time and place is evident from its characterisation as "current orthodoxy" of the view that the realism/antirealism dispute is a debate about whether linguistic understanding is a matter of grasp of epistemically unconstrained truth-conditions or a matter of grasp of assertion conditions. For "current orthodoxy" read "orthodoxy in Oxford in the 1980s", and -- accordingly -- the essay is largely taken up with a discussion of Dummett's analysis of realism as the view that grasp of sentence-meaning is grasp of potentially evidence-transcendent truth-conditions. Grayling argues that rather than attempting in this way to bring all realist/antirealist controversies under one label, we should instead "recognise that they are controversies of different kinds" (p.126). This point is now well-taken -- and indeed defended -- even by philosophers out of the Dummettian stable (cf. Crispin Wright, Truth and Objectivity (Harvard University Press 1992)). However, in contrast to Wright, Grayling argues not that we can develop different realism-relevant considerations that can be brought to bear in different combinations as we move across different discourses, but rather that "we do well to restrict talk of realism to the case where controversy concerns unmetaphorical claims about the knowledge-independent existence of entities or realms of entities -- namely, the 'external world' case" (p.126).

Grayling's argument for this surprising claim is unconvincing. Dummett argues that realism is most fundamentally a semantic thesis, "a doctrine about the sort of thing that makes our statements true when they are true" (quoted by Grayling on p.120), since in some cases a straightforwardly ontological characterisation in terms of the existence of entities is not possible because there are no entities for the realist and antirealist to debate about (Dummett mentions realism about the future and realism about ethics as examples). Grayling argues against this that the semantic thesis is actually less fundamental than realism characterised in metaphysical and epistemological terms on the grounds that Dummett "goes on to unpack the expression 'sort of thing' in a way which shows that its being a semantic thesis comes courtesy of something else" (p.120). To display this Grayling quotes the following passage from Dummett:

the fundamental thesis of realism, so regarded, is that we really do succeed in referring to external objects, existing independently of our knowledge of them, and that the statements we make about them are rendered true or false by an objective reality the constitution of which is, again, independent of our knowledge. (Note that this is not, as Grayling refers to it, on p.55 of Dummett's 1982 "Realism" article, but actually on p.104.)

Grayling takes the reference to external objects in this latter characterisation to show that the semantic characterisation of realism presupposes the ontological characterisation rather than, as Dummett has it, vice versa. It then follows from this that "what we should say about those 'realisms' which are not readily classifiable in terms of entities is, simply, and on Dummett's own reasoning, that they are not realisms" (p.125), and it is this that leads in part to Grayling's restriction of talk of realism to the 'external world' case.

But this is an uncharitable interpretation of Dummett. I take it that what Dummett is saying in the passage quoted by Grayling is actually along the following lines: "the fundamental thesis of realism, so regarded, is that in cases where there is a relevant class of entities whose existence can be a matter of debate , the statements we make about them are rendered true or false by an objective reality the constitution of which is independent of our knowledge, so that in this sense we really do succeed in referring to external objects, existing independently of our knowledge of them; and that in cases where there is no relevant class of entities whose existence can be a matter of debate , the canonical statements of the discourse concerned are rendered true or false by an objective reality the constitution of which is independent of our knowledge". Read in this more charitable way it is clear that the class of entities mentioned is secondary to the mention of knowledge-independent truth, and so there is no implication that talk of realism should be restricted to the "external world" case, so that the way is left open for a Wright-style broadening of the realist/antirealist canvass.

Essay 9 is an extended discussion of McGinn, Nagel and McFetridge on the realism debate, while the final Essay 10 offers some brief reflections on evidence and judgement.

It is not straightforward to appraise this collection, as it is not clear what its target audience is. The various debates have moved on quite a way since Grayling's conference papers were written, and I can't help feeling that they should have been updated and submitted to the rigours of peer-review in the journals before being issued in a collection. To be fair to Grayling, though, he does attempt to pre-empt this kind of worry in his preface, where he points to the "exploratory character" of the essays and says that he "in no case take[s] them to be remotely near a final word on the debates they relate to" (p.v). But I'm not sure that this is enough to get Grayling off the hook. My main problem with the book is not that it is exploratory (there's nothing wrong with that), or that its approach is parochial and somewhat dated, but that the writing style displays some of the worst vices of philosophical writing a la 1980s Oxford, where writing clearly and succinctly appears to be regarded as a mark of superficiality, and where as you get nearer to the nub of an argument, the cruder the stylistic barbarities become. The following example -- of a single sentence! -- from Essay 5 is, unfortunately, not atypical:

Generalising from natural kind terms, we might wish to say that concept words which, in Frege's terminology, refer to empty concepts, can nevertheless be understood, because we can be (so to say) lexically exposed to -- it is more accurate to say: given an understanding of what it would be for something to fall into -- the extensions they would, in better or fuller worlds, have. (p.74)

I'm here reminded of Schopenhauer's comment that "when parentheses are inserted into sentences that have been broken up to accommodate them" the result is "unnecessary and wanton confusion" ( Essays and Aphorisms , trans. R.J. Hollingdale (Penguin 1970), p.207). At any rate, the cause of serious philosophy is not furthered by the poor attempt at Henry James impersonation. Grayling writes:

Too many gifted colleagues publish too little for fear of having every nut and bolt tightened into place; those who venture ideas as if they were letters to friends, trying out a way of thinking about something, and knowing that they will learn from the mistakes they make, do more both for the conversation and themselves thereby. (p.v)

Far be it from me to dictate Grayling's epistolary habits, but if his style in this book is typical of the way he writes to his friends, I'll give his collected correspondence a miss.

Uncomfortable Truth: Utah filmmaker’s documentary aims to inspire change through transparent look at history

by: Curtis Booker

Posted: Jun 22, 2020 / 05:43 PM MDT

Updated: Jun 22, 2020 / 05:43 PM MDT

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) – A local filmmaker is making national waves. Loki Mulholland’s documentary “THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH” was released in 2017 to widespread critical acclaim at film festivals throughout the country.

As Winner of the 2018 Rocky Mountain Regional Emmy Award and five Best Documentary awards, the film speaks volumes in 2020. In support of the anti-racism protests happening throughout the country and beyond, Amazon Prime is featuring “THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH” on its Black Lives Matter channel for free.

Mulholland, the award-winning filmmaker is the son of civil rights icon Joan Trumpauer Mulholland and had previously produced a film, AN ORDINARY HERO, about his mother’s life and incredible actions during the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement.

In explaining to ABC4 why his follow up film, THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH, shifted from the original plan of being a deep dive into America’s history of institutional racism Mulholland said, “I got to a point where I felt like I didn’t want to do the same film twice.” After a slight pause in the writing process, Mulholland says his mother Joan suggested he take a look at his own family history. While doing some research, he was confronted with the shocking reality that his family helped start it all from the very beginning.

The film focuses on Mulholland’s family history as slave owners in the pre-Civil War south and the family’s continued white supremacist attitudes until his mother’s fight against systemic racism. “Thanks to my mother and my own research, I can say to people, ‘We, white people created white supremacy, and we must help dismantle it,” said Mulholland.

The response from viewers have been overwhelming, Mulholland says he has received messages from both Black and White Americans saying “Thank you.” “People were saying they had no idea these things happened, this should be taught in schools,” Mulholland told ABC4.

Between June 5, 2020, and June 11, 2020, the film was viewed more than 194,000 times and currently has a 4.3 out of 5 stars rating on Amazon.

Mulholland formed the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation in 2014 in honor of his mother which serves as a platform to end racism through education. 

The Foundation provides educational materials, films and more to schools throughout the country and provides it free-of-charge for them to use in anti-racism education programs through corporate and individual sustaining donors.

In addition, the pair have formed “The Uncomfortable Truth” podcast . “It’s an extension of the conversation, more of a deep dive into the history and what’s happening present day with the recent protests,” said Mulholland.

“THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH” is available on DVD or to stream for free on Amazon Prime. 

Loki Mulholland told ABC4 if there’s one thing he’d like viewers to take from the movie it is learning to see each other equally, “we have to be willing to stretch beyond what we already know.”

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The Uncomfortable Truth about Wrongful Life Cases

2013, Philosophical Studies

Our ambivalent attitudes toward the notion of ‘a life worth living’ present a philosophical puzzle: Why are we of two minds about the birth of a severely disabled child? Is the child’s life worth living or not worth living? Between these two apparently incompatible evaluative judgments, which is true? If one judgment is true and the other false, what makes us continue to find both evaluations appealing? Indeed, how can we manage to hold these inconsistent judgments simultaneously at all? I critically examine two solutions to this puzzle: the hidden-indexical account and Velleman’s anti-realist account. I propose an alternative explanation which appeals to (a) state-given, as opposed to object-given, reasons for belief and (b) the distinction between belief and acceptance. I argue that (1) the fact that a severely disabled life is not worth living provides object-given reason to believe that that life is not worth living, but (2) after the birth of a severely disabled child, the psychological utility of positive evaluation gives us a state-given reason to believe that that child’s life is worth living, and a reason to accept that, in our relation with the child, her life is worth living. I conclude by drawing a practical lesson about wrongful life suits.

Related Papers

Journal of Law and Medicine 20 (4) 852- 865

Neera Bhatia

This article examines the operation of the “best interests” test in relation to life and death decisions involving very young children. It is in this context that the best interests standard operates most acutely because it is not clouded by other considerations especially individual autonomy. It argues that the standard is too obscure to provide an acceptable legal, medical and moral framework to inform life and death decisions. In particular, it argues that the basal assumption that underpins the test – that some lives are so pitiable that they should not continue – is conceptually flawed. This should prompt a fundamental re-assessment of the test, whereby the legislature establishes concrete criteria regarding the application, scope and content of the standard

Chris Falzon

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Ralph Cunnington

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Ronen Perry

Notwithstanding the undoubtedly pressing moral obligation felt by many affected by a prenatal Down Syndrome diagnosis to terminate the unborn child, the rationale behind this practice is inherently flawed, on account of simple, logical reasoning which exposes the impossibility of accurately making this determination in such a context. If ignored, this inconsistency and illogical practice of termination could lead to much more absurd legal consequences, including a duty to terminate. It follows that the law, insofar as it enables these terminations to occur, must reform to account for the inconsistency it presents when faced with the High Court’s refusal to allow a claim for wrongful life.

Fiona Kumari Campbell

Subjects designated by the neologism 'disability' typically experience various forms of marginality, discrimination and inequality. The response by social scientists and professionals engaged in social policy and service delivery has been to combat the 'disability problem' by way of implementing anti-discrimination protections and various other compensatory initiatives. More recently, with the development of biological and techno-sciences such as 'new genetics', nanotechnologies and cyborgs the solution to 'disability' management has been in the form of utilizing technologies of early detection, eradication or at best, technologies of mitigation. Contemporary discourses of disablement displace and disconnect discussion away from the 'heart of the problem', namely, matters ontological. Disability - based marginality is assumed to emerge from a set of pre-existing conditions (i.e. in the case of biomedicalisation, deficiency inheres in the individual, whilst in the Social Model disablement is created by a capitalist superstructure). The Great Divide takes an alternative approach to studying 'the problem of disability' by proposing that the neologism 'disability' is in fact created by and used to generate notions and epistemologies of 'ableism'. Whilst epistemologies of disablement are well researched, there is a paucity of research related to the workings of ableism. The focal concerns of The Great Divide relate to matters of ordering, disorder and constitutional compartmentalization between the normal and pathological and the ways that discourses about wholeness, health, enhancement and perfection produce notions of impairment. A central argument of this dissertation figures the production of disability as part of the tussle over ordering, emerging from a desire to create order from an assumed disorder; resulting in a flimsy but often unconvincing attempt to shore up so-called optimal ontologies and disperse outlaw ontologies. The Great Divide examines ways ‘disability’ rubs up against, mingles with and provokes other seemingly unrelated concepts such as wellness, ableness, perfection, competency, causation, productivity and use value. The scaffolding of the dissertation directs the reader to selected sites that produce epistemologies of disability and ableism, namely the writing of 'history' and Judeo-Christian renderings of Disability. It explores the nuances of ableism (including a case study of wrongful life torts in law) and the phenomenon of internalized ableism as experienced by many disabled people. The study of liberalism and the government of government are explored in terms of enumeration, the science of 'counting cripples' and the battles over defining 'disability' in law and social policy. Additionally another axis of ableism is explored through the study of a number of perfecting technologies and the way in which these technologies mediate what it means to be 'human' (normalcy), morphs/simulates 'normalcy' and the leakiness of 'disability'. This analysis charts the invention of forearms transplantation (a la Clint Hallam), the Cochlear implant and transhumanism. The Great Divide concludes with an inversion of the ableist gaze(s) by proposing an ethic of affirmation, a desiring ontology of impairment.

Ethical Perspectives

Caroline GUIBET LAFAYE

Abstract: Since few years, several maternities in Paris faced an increasing number of refusal of termination pregnancy for foetal abnormalities. These refusals induce disagreements and tensions between parents and medical staffs in the clinic maternities concerned. In this paper we will propose several ethical arguments and analysis to justify taking into account moral preferences of the parents who reject termination pregnancy. Résumé: Au cours des dernières années, plusieurs maternités parisiennes ont vu croître le nombre de refus d'interruption médicale de grossesse (TOP) dans des cas de pronostic vital néonatal péjoratif ou induisant un handicap très sévère. Ces refus d'IMG sont à la source de tensions entre les parents et les membres des équipes médicales concernées. Nous proposons dans ce qui suit plusieurs arguments éthiques et une analyse de ces dilemmes moraux justifiant que soient pleinement pris en compte les préférences morales des parents qui refusent ces interruptions de grossesse.

Michele Mathes

Actions for wrongful life, as they have come unfortunately to be styled, encompass various types of claim. These include claims for alleged negligence after conception, those based on negligent advice or diagnosis prior to conception concerning possible effects of treatment given to the child's mother, contraception or sterilisation, or genetic disability. This distinguishes such claims from those for so called wrongful birth, which are claims by parents for the cost of raising either a healthy or a disabled child where the unplanned birth imposes costs on the parents as a result of clinical negligence. Two of the more controversial cases to have reached the High Court of Australia which are if interest to us here in the past decade are Cattanach v Melchior where the court, by a narrow majority (McHugh, Gummow, Kirby and Callinan JJ; Gleeson CJ, Hayne and Heydon dissenting) acknowledged recovery for wrongful birth. In the second joined appeals of Harriton v Stephens and Waller v James; Waller v Hoolahan the court overwhelmingly precluded a ‘wrongful life’ claim (Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Hayne, Callinan, Heydon and Crennan JJ; Kirby J dissenting). Both cases raised issues around the sanctity and value of life and the nature of harm and the assessment of damages, and this brief note affords us the opportunity to consider the way in which the ‘life as legal loss’ arguments were treated by the various judges in both cases.

Journal of Legal Medicine

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