Poll: Hope, or the truth?

[SuperfastJellyfish]

I came across an idea today, something that got rooted into my mind. I can't drop this and I was wondering what other people think of it. I bought the Walking Dead game for the iPad(Never having seen the series, or having any way to). I wanted to sorta get into it, ect. So anyways, fate gives you a crashed car, a dead cop, and a horde of the walkers hot on your tail. You break into a house and find an answering machine with three messages that inform you that: A) The family is likely dead, and B)They left a daughter with a baby sitter at the house. You find her and sorta adopt her, and through all of your adventures she's hopeful that her family will find her, or at least worries about how they'll find her. But you're always given the choice of telling her, gently, bluntly, and telling her everything will be fine, which got to me, because she's 8. This really bothered me, a thought I couldn't get rid of. What's better, the ignorance of hope, or the harshness of the truth?

 

[Lionsfan]

I'm gonna say truth. Because if someone finds out that you've been keeping something from them, they would probably react worse than if you just outright told them

 

[boradam]

I'm gonna say truth. Because if someone finds out that you've been keeping something from them, they would probably react worse than if you just outright told them

I don't think an eight year old would fully be able to respond in a negative light in the situation. I think that hope would be more important for keeping her going, and if in the future you get the opportunity to tell her the truth (of what you think is likely to have happened) you could tell her then.

Eventually the truth will come out, but at the moment she might need that boost of hope to keep going. It isn't lying to her, you don't know the truth of what really happened no matter how likely it was. But yeah as I said I feel hope is better in that situation.

 

[DugMachine]

That would be too much for an 8 year old to handle I think. Truth is always better but sometimes it's best to keep up the lie for awhile for the sake of the person.

 

[Lionsfan]

I'm gonna say truth. Because if someone finds out that you've been keeping something from them, they would probably react worse than if you just outright told them

I don't think an eight year old would fully be able to respond in a negative light in the situation. I think that hope would be more important for keeping her going, and if in the future you get the opportunity to tell her the truth (of what you think is likely to have happened) you could tell her then.

Eventually the truth will come out, but at the moment she might need that boost of hope to keep going. It isn't lying to her, you don't know the truth of what really happened no matter how likely it was. But yeah as I said I feel hope is better in that situation.

I struggled with that one, and I thought about an 8-year old shutting down completely with truth, but with Hope you're just living a lie. Eventually the child is going to work it out, and the longer you delay, I feel the bigger a reaction with happen

 

[Arakasi]

Hope in this sense is merely lying to yourself.

Truth is the greatest of virtues.

 

[Shadowstar38]

Fuck yeah I'd tell her the truth. That way, she grows up to be batman.

 

[Phasmal]

I think the truth, but approached in an age-appropriate manner.

You don't need to go into too much detail at first, and then when they get older and have more questions you can deal with it then.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

Truth, truth is something you can speak while encouraging hope, in this situation that is my choice, tell truth, but encourage hope, that way if they parents were to have survived, awesome, if not, well it is to be expected...

 

[King of Asgaard]

The truth is always better than hope, false or otherwise.
Getting someone's hopes up when the likelihood of something good happening is low is quite a bit worse than telling the truth.

 

[Hawk eye1466]

I'd say truth because if you don't then they will grow up and never admit that the family could be dead and endanger herself and others trying to find them at least with the fact that their dead and that your there to keep her safe will prevent any reckless stunts with the excuse I need to know if they've been here.

 

[Lieju]

Truth, generally.

But in a situation where you aren't dealing with an equal, but a child, and are in a dangerous situation, it might be that not telling her the truth just right at that moment might be the best move.

But still, I'd tell her. Even if I tried to hide it, and not even directly lie, she'd sense something was wrong.

I have actually been in a situation like that. I was in another city when someone close to me died, and my mom didn't want to tell me by phone so she just didn't mention it. But I noticed something was wrong and that she was being evasive, not mentioning that someone.
So I directly asked her, and she told me 'I'll tell you when you come over here tomorrow'.

Which not only made me panic, it made me furious. And I pleaded her to tell me what had happened, because it couldn't possibly be worse than what I imagined.

And giving false hope for someone can be a very cruel thing. It makes the person unable to move on. Besides, if you tell a child her family is alive, she will want to know why they aren't there for her. Do you want to give her the impression that her family either has abandoned her, or is facing who knows what?

Are you certain you can lie convincingly? What if you'll end up acting in a way that makes her think you're untrustworthy? Because you indeed are hiding something from her?

Most children are warned against strangers who will tell you they are the friends of the parents, or that they are taking them to their parents etc.

 

[Scrustle]

That would be too much for an 8 year old to handle I think. Truth is always better but sometimes it's best to keep up the lie for awhile for the sake of the person.

I'd say this. In general life it's usually best to always seek the truth. No matter how much "hope" you have you still have to deal with the shit reality throws at you. You can't just "hope" things away, but this situation is different.

A zombie apocalypse is stressful enough, but to then tell a small girl that her parents are dead right in the middle of it is just too much. That doesn't mean you have to lie to her and say her parents are alive though, you can play dumb. It's still lying, but it's a white lie and it doesn't fill her with false hope which will only leave her even more crushed when she finds out. I guess you you could somehow gently let her know that there's a possibility that her parents are dead, otherwise she will naively think, as children do, that her parents must be alive and there's no way she won't find them. In the end she'll be just as crushed as if you told her they were alive. She would be just as certain that it was true as if you told her it was.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

In that particular situation? I'd let the kid hope. After all, the family is only likely to be dead - can you imagine the shitstorm if you tell the little tyke everyone they've ever loved had their brains served up on Jacobs only to run into them in the next aid station? Nah, let the kid hope, the situation's bleak enough as it is.

Although it should be said that if the person wasn't a little kid I'd tell 'em straight.

 

[Manji187]

I came across an idea today, something that got rooted into my mind. I can't drop this and I was wondering what other people think of it. I bought the Walking Dead game for the iPad(Never having seen the series, or having any way to). I wanted to sorta get into it, ect. So anyways, fate gives you a crashed car, a dead cop, and a horde of the walkers hot on your tail. You break into a house and find an answering machine with three messages that inform you that: A) The family is likely dead, and B)They left a daughter with a baby sitter at the house. You find her and sorta adopt her, and through all of your adventures she's hopeful that her family will find her, or at least worries about how they'll find her. But you're always given the choice of telling her, gently, bluntly, and telling her everything will be fine, which got to me, because she's 8. This really bothered me, a thought I couldn't get rid of. What's better, the ignorance of hope, or the harshness of the truth?

If the family is LIKELY to be dead, it means the main character has no way of knowing whether they truly are or aren't. That's the "beauty" of the situation; you are forced to act in absence of perfect information.

You can let the kid hope, or you can indicate that there is A CHANCE that her parents haven't survived. And that, in the end, is the actual truth of the moment: they might be dead, they might be alive. The kid can draw hope from this, but is probably not mature enough to understand the flipside; despair.

Most people would probably encourage hope, considering the age of the child. But even at a young age, with enough passage of time and the witnessing of the horrors, realisation of the alternative is likely to dawn on the child.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Who will you choose,
Reshiram or Zekrom?

OT: In general, I would choose truth, even if finding out that truth has the potential to hurt.

A few months ago, we adopted a middle aged cat. He came from an abusive home and he was a sweet and lovable thing. We got attached really fast, but he had an unknown health issue. The adoption center (a no kill shelter) took him back to find out what was wrong with him. We didn't hear for a long while and entertained the idea that somehow he'd recovered. I couldn't stand not knowing the truth, so I called the shelter and they told me he'd been suffering from Feline infectious peritonitis (which is a death sentence for cats).
It was sad to know he didn't make it, but at least his final days with us were happy.

 

[R4ptur3]

I Would say hope. Truth is good but only when it is the right time in certain situations. For something like this scenario, hope is what what would drive you on, even if is was hope that you would survive.

 

[Basement Cat]

You can launch into the a long winded explanation of what's really happening when you get the child out. In an emergency you don't weigh down someone with more than they need. In general.

Actually, a lot of it depends on the child. The truth is kids are incredibly resilient, and their very youth and lack of life experience means they accept changes in their world surprisingly well--dramatic changes, mind you; take away a toddler's favorite toy and you've got yourself a whirlwind of screaming headed your way.

Mostly it'd depend on the kid, from my point of view.

Captcha: get the hopper free

I get that the Escapist has bills to pay, and using advertisement captchas is an easy way to do it. It doesn't make it any less annoying when they keep cropping up every time I post.

 

[squidface]

No matter what the situation, truth is always best. Just ... yeah. Like mentioned, it's worse finding out later rather than sooner.

 

[Ljs1121]

I'm gonna say truth. Because if someone finds out that you've been keeping something from them, they would probably react worse than if you just outright told them

I hate it when somebody sums up exactly how I feel about a topic on the first post. Darn you, Lionsfan!

But yeah, If I was in her situation, I'd at least want to know what happened to them. Having closure is more important to me than living my entire life wondering.

I'd also tell the girl, but I would have to do it in the gentlest way possible.