We as human beings are very complex, we are people who are made to live in communities, to live in groups, to live in pairs. But when it comes to communicating with people we don't seem to try to do it in the best way.
Sometimes it is easier to keep quiet and say nothing and sometimes it is easier not to say thank you, or not to be polite or to have no values or education.
Many of the people we communicate with don't know us, we have no obligation to be nice to them. "I'm in a place where no one seems to like me and that's when I delight in bringing out my hostile personality."
No one forces us to be nice people, no one forces us to be people with values, integrity, uprightness, but we do all this because we feel good about ourselves doing it.
When none of this gives us pleasure then we feel no obligation to anyone or to ourselves to be happy and it seems that antisocial behavior prevails not to make us better people but to undermine our own soul.
Having said that, I want to bring up something I read today about an anecdote of the Greek philosopher Socrates, this refers to the three filters of Socrates.
It happens that one fine day apparently a friend, or an acquaintance, or an emissary, messenger, came to him and told him that he has something to communicate to him about a friend of his.
I really have no proof that this really happened to Socrates, but I don't doubt it either, it’s easy for me to recognize that people who are busy with important things in their lives are not interested in hearing stories that have no relevance to human beings.
When Socrates' interlocutor said to him that he had something to tell him, Socrates said “Wait. I'm just telling you that if you pass these three filters then you can tell me what you have come here to say”
"First, have you ascertained that what you come to tell me about my friend is true?"
To which the interlocutor responds…
"No, I am not certain that what I have come to tell you is really true, I have not had the time to verify this information."
"Well, you haven't passed the first filter. Let's see if you can pass the second...
"What you've come to tell me about my friend is really a good story?
To which he says...
"No, it’s nothing that is good to hear about a person."
“Well” said Socrates. "What you came to tell me about my friend is neither true, nor is it good. Let's see if you can pass the third filter.”
“Is what you come to tell me useful in any way?"
"Neither, what I come to tell you about your friend is of no use to your friend or to anyone else."
So then Socrates pauses for a moment and looks at him.
"If what you come to tell me is something that is not true, is not useful, nor is it good for anything, what are you coming to tell me? Since you have not passed any of the three filters, I ask you not to tell me anything".
It’s this what deeply caught my attention, because sometimes we lose our north and we give information that somehow doesn’t comply with the three filters of Socrates, but since we have nothing else to do, we prefer to talk about other people's things that are of no benefit to anyone.
Don't waste your time or mine or the time of others by talking about things that you can't highlight later. What is said remains spoken and can damage someone's reputation and by the time you can prove it as something that is not true, the person will already be slandered and subjected to scorn without the need for it.
Let us watch what comes out of our mouth because it’s more important than what goes into it and it will cost us more to clean our soul with the impurities with which we are feeding it.
Thank you friends, for always reading my posts as always. I thank you all and my kind sponsors from the bottom of my heart.
We really need to be eaxtra careful in everything we say. Those three filters is a nice way to find out if what we are about to say or hear is worth it.