TIME OUT:The most valued currency today is the truth, writes MARIE MURRAY
“Oh what a tangled web
we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!”
– Sir Walter Scott
WHEN THE boom went bust more than an economy was lost. The vestiges of trust in institutions died. Trust in truth died. The uncovering of deceptions across many revered institutions opened eyes and ears to an underworld of dishonesty that had pervaded Irish life undetected for decades.
The national shocks of the past few years have brought responses that are recognised in the clinical world in those who are bereaved or traumatised. The initial shock has been followed by disbelief in the reality and the extent of our national losses. This has turned into anger, which has remained a dominant emotion, accompanied by anxiety and fear.
The classic psychological aftermath of betrayal is distress – if this is not true, what else is false? If so much is false, in whom can one place trust? If there is no one trustworthy, the world is not safe. If the world is not safe, how can I survive?
The trauma of betrayal has led to classic suspicion, hypervigilance, acute attention to all that is said, by whom it is said and whether or not it is believable. Statements made with apparent sincerity do not win automatic credibility. Evidence is required. Brevity is preferred. Abstract sentences, pious promises and righteous declarations irritate. Single yes/no, true/false answers are sought. Obfuscation is not an option. Say it out. Say it now. Say it true. Say it clear.
People are tired of trickery. They have identified the vocabulary of sham. They are sick of spin and sleigh of hand. They do not need to be told what they already know by those who disassociate themselves now from what they did not oppose when it was happening.
Ears are educated to avoidance and evasion, to the slick, sick, shirking and skirting around the circumference of truth. Avoidance and evasion are visible. Discourse examination is the order of the day where analysis is undertaken of every sentence in an interview. Defensive linguistic dodges are not admired. Opportunism is annoying. We want honesty. We want it kept “real”.
People do not want the radio ad followed by high-speed unnerving qualifications and indistinct sotto-voice “terms and conditions” that apply.
They are not reassured when they are told that a product or service is protected by the financial regulator.
They do not believe they are “valued customers” when they go from digit to digit awaiting service. Small print is unacceptable. Disclaimers cause concern. Mission statements are aspirations. Action is all that we believe.
The most valued currency in our country today is truth. The most valued characteristic in people is integrity.
And this may be the most important outcome of the economic bust. In an extraordinary way, the aftermath of the “tangled web” of deceit that has strangled the country psychologically and financially has brought re-evaluation of our entire value system. We have lost our admiration for image and illusion. As we unravel the past, we also untangle the future from our least admirable psychic traits. Now, at last, we may be more ready than ever to shake off the post-colonial debris of secret admiration for the “cute hoor”, the art of “getting away with it” and the anti-social mentality of operating within the loopholes rather than the spirit of the law. Fraud is fraud, theft is theft and equality of consequences is required. Words like decency, honesty and reliability have re-entered our list of preferred personal characteristics.
Just as worst hours often precede best times, so too this may be our finest opportunity to validate truth, honesty, fair dealing, sincerity, equality and reality. “We are the tenants of the years behind us,” wrote John B Keane. We pay the price for that tenancy, but we also learn from the past about how to enter the future, confidently, honestly and together.
Marie Murray is a clinical psychologist and author and director of psychology in UCD’s Student Counselling Services