You hear a juicy tidbit from a friend, who heard it from another friend, who heard it from a person in the common room, who read it on a note passed in class, which was written by somebody who probably just made it up.Chances are, rumors and gossip are always floating around your workplace or community. That’s totally normal. After all,everyone gossips…even parents, celebrities, and politicians. It is part of how we communicate and stay connected with other people’s lives.
Sometimes, this is harmless, but at other times it can be very hurtful to individuals, friendships, and whole groups of people.
To me, rumor or gossip is harmless when it glorifies or exaggerates something good a person might have done. A rumor becomes ugly, on the other hand, when it hurts feelings or tarnishes the image of the person the rumor is about. When someone is spreading rumors about me, I try to find out who started them, and why. If it’s a really outlandish rumor, I usually don’t care, because not too many people will believe it anyway.
Filtering Test proposed by Socrates may help us to think when someone starts to spread gossip.The story goes, one day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"
Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test.It's called the TRIPLE FILTER TEST
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you're not certain it's true?" The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though,because there is a third filter - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really..."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful,why tell it to me at all?"
The man was defeated and ashamed.
Pena Tumpul - Beware of gossip mongers
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