Truth Without Trust

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

—1 Corinthians 13:1

In relationships, heat is the trust, and force is the truth, and for transformation, the goal is equal parts heat and force. So what happens when there’s an absence of trust and an overflow of truth?

On the internet there’s a whole lot of truth and strong belief and feedback—and absolutely no trust or relationship. You can say what you think, as nasty and opinionated as you want to be, and you don’t even have to tell people your real name, let alone learn their name or story or background. You get to yell (in all caps) what you think about absolutely everything—I didn’t like that restaurant. Your candidate is terrible. Those people are wrong. The internet is one big screaming, opinionating example of truth without trust.

How often have you found yourself truly moved to change, to choose a better path or make something right, because someone on the internet screamed about it?

I’m not saying the internet is inherently bad. I’m saying it allows us to communicate our strong beliefs and opinions outside of relationship, and that’s a lot like swinging a hammer at a piece of ice cold metal, hoping it will transform.