Don't Rat as Code of Silence vs Honesty

From the jail-house philosophy don't rat on me to doctors who won't rat out incompetent colleagues. There is the police blue code of silence don't rat out other cops and of course the omerta, the Mafia code of silence.

When a person chooses to withhold important information they enter the code of silence. There can be many reasons for this choice, none of them are good reasons.

Perhaps the best reason of all for breaking a code of silence would be when it puts the code breaker into great danger. Many such people enter the code involuntarily.

This code is set on an evil foundation, it is meant to protect those who may choose or plan to do societal harm. For the good of us all this must be broken.

It's no secret that when it comes time many in the Mafia will break their silence, throw their colleagues under the bus if it will benefit them. And this happens long before they are faced with any law enforcement issues. They will weed out their own at a whim if they think they are being cheated or betrayed.

Doctors and police have the same issues although they can't get away with what they used too.

The bottom line is not telling someone about your friends weird behavior, or behavior changes could be their last chance. Kids kill themselves while friends protect their behaviors till the end, preventing them from getting professional help.

Why is dishonesty coveted in so many social circles. Certainly there is that social need to belong to something. A greater social responsibility is to teach our young that honesty is the higher power well above any code of silence.

That having secrets that can harm do no one any good.

Honesty doesn't break codes it shatters them. The best thing about honesty is it develops inner strength and something that seems to be lost in our present society virtue.

Virtue is moral excellence, no we're not talking about running around like a bunch of Tim Tebows and Danny Wuerffels. But they are young men of high virtue.

Honesty does not devalue a person it builds them a foundation of principle and good moral being. Honesty leads to trust and integrity.

What does dishonesty lead to?

Our society really needs to value these traits again, right now we are floundering.

Honesty is a practice no one ever really reaches perfection. As you lead a life of honesty those who are dishonest will not trust you and shy away from you, this will be your gain. Some will resent you or try and control you through intimidation, you stand your ground and they will move away.

Believing in honesty means you will have to develop some diplomacy not all areas like does this make me look fat or how do you like my new red hair require absolute honesty. My favorite old saying is, I'd rather aim at something and just miss it than aim at nothing and hit it dead center.

We don't trust our government and it's not because there are so many who cheat and steal even they are forgiven if they come clean and are honest, well it depends on how bad the things are they did.

I think we all want to be honest, the statement above shows that America is very forgiving when someone is forthcoming about his shortcomings. Athletes, politicians and even criminals all help themselves in public opinion when they just get honest.

It's good, it's healing, it needs to be our goal.