Is knowing the truth always a good thing?
- Oct 6, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 22, 2020
Can hiding the truth protect someone from something terrible? Or is it just a misguided method that can lead to something much worse?
Is it sometimes better to be blind?
"The truth is generally thought of as a necessity in normal life. If everyone just told the truth, surely everything would be a lot easier, right? If people didn't lie in court trials, then wouldn't it be a lot easier to catch the criminals that committed the crime? Probably. If we received honest info about politics (look at the number of false claims!), wouldn't choosing the best representatives be a lot easier? Probably. But sometimes it’s not so simple. Sometimes, the truth might hurt so much to the point where you just wish you never knew." -Me, probably (I'm pretty sure there isn't anything out there that's word for word with this)
Can the truth cause more harm than good?
As I read through Oedipus the King, I was reminded of a movie called The Farewell. In China, when someone is diagnosed with a terminal disease, it is not uncommon for that person’s family to hide the diagnosis from that person. In the United States, this is illegal, but in China, the main idea behind this is that the burden of knowing that one has that disease contributes more to that person’s death than the disease itself. The truth can sometimes be hard to bear, and in certain situations one could argue that it’s better that the truth isn’t revealed at all. You could certainly infer that Oedipus wishes he never needed to know the truth. I don’t imagine gouging your eyes is something that you do regularly unless you feel that guilty about something.
Both of these works seem to complement each other in this respect. While the gods were merciful enough to allow Oedipus to live, he has to live the rest of his life physically blind, while simultaneously seeing the horrors of his actions for the rest of his life. Nai Nai (the person who was diagnosed with cancer The Farewell in but didn't know about it) almost seems to have gotten off easy. Though she seems doomed to die, at least she doesn't have to worry about dying everyday. One knows the terrible truth and is haunted by it. The other doesn't know the terrible truth and seems just fine.
Simply put, it can - at first. Long term - that's a different story.
Why you always need the truth
Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero specifically makes sure to exclude the perfectly righteous and the inexplicably deranged, the main reason being so that the audience can relate to and feel genuine sympathy for the character. Oedipus fits this description because he is by absolutely no means an angel, yet he is also far from the devil. He falls victim to unfortunate circumstances, partially by his own doing and partially because he was unlucky enough to be born into a terrible prophecy. It's this mix that makes Oedipus a true tragic hero, because it was inevitable that he was going to suffer. Tragic heroes almost always seem predestined for a terrible fate. Now, believe what you want about everyone's fate being predestined, but one thing humans seem to always want to do is to know the truth. Oedipus doesn't stop asking for the truth even when he seems to realize that it isn't pleasant. In The Farewell, the only reason Nai Nai isn't like Oedipus in her pursuit of the truth is because she believes she already knows the truth. People always want to know the truth, no matter how terrible it is. As Billy Joel sings in his song "Honesty":
Honesty is such a lonely word
Everyone is so untrue
Honesty is hardly ever heard
And mostly what I need from you.
Maybe Billy Joel wasn't exactly singing about people hiding terrible truths about people dying, but you get the point. People just want the facts, even when others think it's too terrible to tell them.
However, even though the truth is so terrible, it's made relatively clear that hiding the truth would not be more beneficial. The gods weren't happy with Oedipus, and if Oedipus had never learned the truth, chances are Oedipus would never have gotten the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the gods in Oedipus at Colonus. In The Farewell, it's revealed that Nai Nai was still alive six years later. Though it's possible that her family has maintained the lie, the burden of secretly knowing Nai Nai should die soon for that long would take a massive toll on the whole family. Though it seems like hiding the truth can sometimes be helpful, the truth always comes around to bite if kept hidden for too long. (Woah, a thesis that’s NOT in the intro paragraph?)
What goes around comes around
Another thing that crossed my mind while analyzing this question was Harry Potter. Dumbledore messes up when he allows Harry Potter to be kept from learning the truth regarding the Chosen One prophecy until the end of his fifth year. The result: Harry is a bit softer than Dumbledore would've liked at this stage in Harry's life. Another result: Sirius Black, the closest thing Harry has ever had to a parent, dies.
It's heartbreaking stuff. And that's saying something when you've already lost both parents, thwarted Voldemort at least three times, and gone through so many traumatizing things it's a miracle you can still smile in your fifteen-or-so years alive.
Dumbledore found out the hard way that keeping the truth ultimately causes long-term harm. Oedipus is fortunate to never have found out what would have happened to him, his family, and his town had he not learned the truth because he learns the truth just soon enough so that some potential damage that would have been inflicted by the gods is averted (I imagine his town would have suffered as long as Oedipus didn't learn the truth). J.K. Rowling decides to show what happens when the truth comes around and bites someone in the behind, and it results in a lot of pain for Harry and Dumbledore. J.K. Rowling basically confirms what Sophacles alluded to: hiding the truth will eventually catch up to you.
Conclusion
The point is, hiding the truth is simply the easy way out. The truth will always catch up to you, no matter how much you try to avoid it or keep someone else from knowing it. It's kind of like a dam made of sticks instead of concrete. It may work at first, but the water and anger that build up behind it will eventually overpower the makeshift dam, and it will cause exponentially more damage when it breaks. Both Harry and Oedipus probably wouldn't have suffered as much had they simply known from the beginning.
It might be hard, but tell the truth.
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