Robin Hanson: Dark Pain, Dark Joy →

I recommend Robin Hanson’s post that I link above. There are many things we hide from others, and some that we hide from ourselves. Robin Hanson explores our hidden pains and hidden joys, and why we might hide them. 

There can be legitimate reasons for hiding things from others, though much less often than many people think. (I learned a lot from reading Sissela Bok’s books Lying and Secrets soon after they came out.) But it is too bad to hide something from oneself. As I wrote in my post “Truth or Consequences”: 

In my personal life, in order to keep myself from avoiding the truth, I often say to myself: “Whatever you decide is true, you don’t necessarily have to do anything about it,” lest fear of what I should do given certain findings tempt me to not find out the truth.

Let yourself see the truth, even if it means promising yourself you might not do anything about. As long as there is some chance the truth will set you free, it is worth facing it.