Developing Intellectual Honesty

Scenario # 3

Jessie lives in Antarctica where he spends most of his time eating raw fish.  Jessie also happens to be an adorable flabby penguin.  With mating season quickly approaching, lately Jessie has forgone his daily trips to the local ocean, in order to focus his attention on gathering stones in order to build a nest.  He knows that the hotties (the chubby female penguins) will be returning soon and that they will be selecting a mate based on whoever has the best nests.

Sam is also an adorable, though less industrious penguin.  He is too interested in eating his daily catch of fish to worry about something so mundane as nest building.

When Shelia (beauty incarnated) waddles her way through the colony, Sam tries his very best to attract her attention.  She however shuffles right past him, and heads straight towards Jessie and his amazing nest!  Sam becomes irate and disgusted.  He convinces himself that he is a victim of injustice!

Which of the following conclusions might an intellectually honest person draw, and why?

1. Sam has been wronged by Shelia!  Shelia is a gold digging penguin, just like her mother and her grandmother were!  In fact, she comes from a long line of gold digging penguins!  If she is so obsessed with material possessions like rocks and nests, then her and Jessie deserve each other!

2.  Shelia is indeed a gold digger, but Sam should have known that this was how the game was played.  He only has himself to blame!

3.  For the love of!…. Shelia is a penguin!  She needs the security of a nest to protect her future chick!  Jessie put in the work, and he deserves the rewards!

Remember that our goal is to face reality as it really exists, and not to lie to ourselves in order to spare our own feelings.  Yes, it is unfortunate that Sam ended up with nothing, but this is a result of his own choices.  Jessie and Shelia bear none of the blame!  Thus, either 2, or 3 would be intellectually honest positions to take.

Our goal must be to judge all situations by the same standards, even when this means admitting that we made mistakes!