Author’s Note: This is the seventh post in my 12 Great Commandments series, inspired by Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project. In the last post, we discussed the importance of connecting people.
We’re afraid to be right.
We’re taught from childhood: do the right thing. Stand up for what’s right, even if everyone else says it’s wrong.
But (still) we’re afraid to be right.
Why?
We’re afraid to be right because it means that someone else has to be wrong, and because rights and wrongs can hurt people. And because rights and wrongs start wars.
But most of all, we’re afraid to be right because somewhere, sometime, we learned about mistakes. We learned of great atrocities committed in the name of being right.
We learned that right is often … risky.
So we say: be responsible. Choose safety. Compromise. Negotiate. Accept everything, and judge nothing. We also say: we don’t know the right answer so there must be no right answer.
Accept, accept, accept. Don’t judge.
But.
Aren’t we forgetting that there are good things in the world – great things in the world – right things in the world – that need defending?
Aren’t we forgetting that there are wrongs in this world worth fighting?
Aren’t we sacrificing the chance of heaven for a sure, slow, comfortable descent to hell?
Perhaps we’re too quick to bury the hatchet when we are called upon to wield it.
So.
I dare you to take the risk. I dare you to hold beliefs worth persecuting and convictions worth proclaiming.
I dare you to be right and be proud of it. Even if that means that someone else has to be wrong.
I dare you.
***
The seventh commandment:
Dare to be right.
***
“Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.” – Winston Churchill
5 Comments on “Dare to be Right (A Semi-Poem)”
says:
Wonderfully written Jeffery. I say just learn to hear and act on what you believe is right. You'll still be wrong sometimes, but you have to try. You have to try to listen to your heart.
says:
What a lovely post. And I agree, completely.
says:
Amen to this. Beautifully said.
says:
There is so much to this – our American culture is dying because of being afraid to be right. We are afraid to the point where we can't offend anyone, and in turn, we are loosing everything that means something.
says:
YES!!!