The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Truth shall set you free

2) People need to hear the truth, even when it’s harsh.

There were a couple of nice scenes in this week’s episode of The Walking Dead where Negan and Lydia had some tense discussions about Alpha, her death, Negan’s role in it, and his relationship to her, Lydia, and the rest of the community. In those discussions, Lydia didn’t hold back, and told Negan exactly what she thought of him, Alpha’s death, and why he killed Alpha in the first place.

Now, I’m inclined to think that the chances of you finding yourself in such a situation in a zombie apocalypse slim, but, the scene did show something important: People need to hear the truth. Not what they want to hear, not what you think they want to hear, not what you want them to hear, but, the actual truth.

Now, I’ll be the first to decry alarmism, but, at the same time, telling people everything’s fine when you’re in a zombie apocalypse is, frankly, absurd. You might think that you’re sparing people by keeping them in the dark, and, if they have a serious heart condition or something, sure, dumping the truth on them might not be good in the long run, but, barring that, you’re just making things worse the longer you go without giving them the truth. Eventually, the truth will come out, and, once it does, whatever protection you thought you were providing them, will make the realization of their situation that much worse for them to take.

Also, while omitting facts because you legitimately question whether the other person can handle it is one thing (Maybe even a well intentioned thing), omitting facts or framing those facts in a certain way — Essentially, telling people what you want them to hear — is a wholly different thing. At that point, you’re just lying. Whether that’s to save your own skin or for some other selfish reason, it’s bad, and will come back to haunt you sooner rather than later.

People need to know the truth, otherwise, how are they supposed to deal with it?