What’s Wrong With Being Right?
Not much, of course. Or maybe a lot. Hard to be absolutely certain, which is the point. What’s wrong with being right is that we can’t always know—in the big scheme of things—what’s really right. And if we’re too concerned with being right, we lose sight of just living our lives.
If I’m right, then usually it means that someone else is wrong. It might just be my job to show them that they’re wrong. Would that make me self-righteous? Would that be wrong?
And if I’m wrong, maybe I should feel guilty. And if I don’t want you to know that I’m wrong or have been wrong, then I’ll need to do some cover‑up. Not outright lies, just cover up my flaws. That surely wouldn’t be wrong. It’s just making things nicer for both of us. Right? Right.
Or maybe not. Maybe that approach keeps me from being my very best self, and keeps a barrier between us. You might want to hurt me or judge me if you knew I was wrong. And I might have to hurt you to defend myself.
What if we all reserved the right to be wrong? What if we acknowledged that we don’t always get it right? What if we could focus on doing good work, living life to the fullest, doing our best, without fear of being wrong? Wouldn’t that be a relief?
Maybe even when we were wrong, we’d be closer to getting it right.
What do you think? Am I right about this?
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!