Living with Integrity Part 3 - Conceptual clarity
The title "Conceptual Clarity" is borrowed from friends and colleagues Jeffrie Cape and David Garvin, and reflects the importance of integrity in how we view and practice our work. And not only work in abusive partner intervention. So these next lessons from Professor Timothy Snyder may seem quite familiar to those who practice abuse intervention.
9. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.
10. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. (Snyder 2017).
We know that the way we think about the world reflects and shapes the way we act and react in the world. Abuse intervention programs seek to help people bring their pro-abuse belief systems to consciousness. Once in the light, they can be examined, tested, and I can choose whether these beliefs are true, if they reflect my values, and if they are helping me in life.
This work requires honesty and accuracy.
We know that those who choose to abuse, whether at home or in arenas of civic power, rely upon obfuscation. The Cambridge Dictionary defines obfuscation as "making something less clear and less easy to understand, especially intentionally." Obfuscation conceals the truth, hides reality, and serves those who benefit from confusion and misunderstanding. Some complain that "obfuscation" is a big and clumsy word, but it's virtue is in precisely describing the all-too-human practice of concealing the truth - by any and all means.
In my office is a poster which proclaims KNOW EXCUSES, and lists dozens of "reasons" given by men who use obfuscation to confuse and conceal their responsibility for their choice to inflict harm. Every single one is an attempt to misdirect away from the truth of what is actually going on. To get to the "no excuses" truth, you need to "know excuses" when you see and hear them.
Seeing things as they are - truthfully - needs clarity of vision and the right viewpoint/context/mindset. There is this dynamic between what we see and how we think, so our language helps or hinders our pursuit of truth.
Truth is not optional. In his autograph of this picture, Gandhi, Great Soul, prophet of non-violent resistance, presents truth as the highest value. This insight is found in many spiritual traditions. In Islam, one of the 99 names of Allah is ٱلْحَقُّ, Al-Haqq, the Absolute Truth. In Christian scripture, Jesus is proclaimed "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). The Babylonian Talmud of Jewish teaching states that "Truth is the seal of the Holy One" (Shabbat 55a), and the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, held that the purpose of human life is “How to become true and how to break the wall of falsehood.”
I think these point to the fact that truth is a prerequisite for so many good things: justice, love, compassion. Truth is an enabling technology for a healthy social order.
In the face of lies and deceit - whether Big Lies or small, intentional, habitual, or unrecognized - recognizing what is false is necessary to discerning and speaking what is true. When AIDS activists shouted "Silence = Death," they had it right. Truth is not optional. Truth is not available for our use until it is "out of the bag," until someone is able to say the emperor has no clothes. I have not heard anyone make the case that the world needs less truth - only more truth-tellers.
Let me put in one last word for Dr. Snyder's guidance to "Read books." Blogs, pictures which speak a thousand words, bumper stickers and sound bites are fine for what they are. But truth often requires some real work. The people I know who are most insightful and impactful are all informed by real books. We all need to expand our horizons and deepen our commitment to the truth.
Credits:
Mike Jackson and David Garvin. "Know excuses" poster. The excuses were all given by men in the battering intervention program of Catholic Social Services of Washtenau County (Michigan).
Timothy Snyder. (2017). On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. https://timothysnyder.org/on-tyranny
9. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.
10. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. (Snyder 2017).
We know that the way we think about the world reflects and shapes the way we act and react in the world. Abuse intervention programs seek to help people bring their pro-abuse belief systems to consciousness. Once in the light, they can be examined, tested, and I can choose whether these beliefs are true, if they reflect my values, and if they are helping me in life.
This work requires honesty and accuracy.
We know that those who choose to abuse, whether at home or in arenas of civic power, rely upon obfuscation. The Cambridge Dictionary defines obfuscation as "making something less clear and less easy to understand, especially intentionally." Obfuscation conceals the truth, hides reality, and serves those who benefit from confusion and misunderstanding. Some complain that "obfuscation" is a big and clumsy word, but it's virtue is in precisely describing the all-too-human practice of concealing the truth - by any and all means.
In my office is a poster which proclaims KNOW EXCUSES, and lists dozens of "reasons" given by men who use obfuscation to confuse and conceal their responsibility for their choice to inflict harm. Every single one is an attempt to misdirect away from the truth of what is actually going on. To get to the "no excuses" truth, you need to "know excuses" when you see and hear them.
Seeing things as they are - truthfully - needs clarity of vision and the right viewpoint/context/mindset. There is this dynamic between what we see and how we think, so our language helps or hinders our pursuit of truth.
I think these point to the fact that truth is a prerequisite for so many good things: justice, love, compassion. Truth is an enabling technology for a healthy social order.
In the face of lies and deceit - whether Big Lies or small, intentional, habitual, or unrecognized - recognizing what is false is necessary to discerning and speaking what is true. When AIDS activists shouted "Silence = Death," they had it right. Truth is not optional. Truth is not available for our use until it is "out of the bag," until someone is able to say the emperor has no clothes. I have not heard anyone make the case that the world needs less truth - only more truth-tellers.
Let me put in one last word for Dr. Snyder's guidance to "Read books." Blogs, pictures which speak a thousand words, bumper stickers and sound bites are fine for what they are. But truth often requires some real work. The people I know who are most insightful and impactful are all informed by real books. We all need to expand our horizons and deepen our commitment to the truth.
Credits:
Mike Jackson and David Garvin. "Know excuses" poster. The excuses were all given by men in the battering intervention program of Catholic Social Services of Washtenau County (Michigan).
Timothy Snyder. (2017). On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. https://timothysnyder.org/on-tyranny
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