How many times have you heard of someone you know?Or how many times have you told someone you know or your family about someone else?However, if there is one thing that differentiates the two situations is the intention that exists in each of them What can we do when we hear a rumor?What to do with gossip or criticism?
Criticism, rumors and gossip are common in our day to day, so sometimes they go unnoticed in our country, not because of their content, but because we too, there is even a profusion of sayings that allude to this type of comment:
- There is no denying that criticism.
- Rumors and gossip form a group.
- Often destructive.
- And generate immediate interest on several occasions.
- Each of them suffering distortions over time.
- Traveling from word of mouth.
- Most often generating uninsused consequences.
To explain how we should act, I recalled a dialogue of Socrates, known as “the triple filter”, which I present here in a very succinct way. “An acquaintance approached Socrates to tell him something about one of his friends, but Socrates, before even hearing it, decided to do a small test, the triple filter test. Socrates decided to filter out what knowledge would tell him about his friend through three different filters: the filter of truth, that of goodness and that of utility. I asked you three questions related to each of the filters:?Are you absolutely sure what you want to tell me? (Real Filter)?Is it positive what you have to say about my friend?(Courtesy Filter)? Is that what you have to say to me about him useful?(utility filter).
After the acquaintance admitted that he was not sure if it was true that he would say it, or if it was a positive or useful thing, Socrates concluded, “Why are you telling me then?”In short, a useful strategy for putting into practice when you come up with a gossip, a rumor, is to apply the triple filter, not only when receiving a comment, but also when we are the ones who did it, and we can activate the filter. And here we go, is the habit the best teacher?(Pnio, O Jovem).
Image courtesy of Omnia_mutantur