Is lying-flat flat-out lying?

The Ethical Lexicon #33: How the latest cultural trend turns a good idea into a toxic practice

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Are you old enough to remember Paul Simon’s satirical ballad I am a Rock?

Ironically, if unconsciously, this self-deprecating classic has become the anthem of a new and growing movement.

It’s easy to understand why.  We live with the ever increasing pressure to hustle, to work overtime, to be available 24/7, to respond to every query and request because -- who knows? -- our breakthrough moment might be right around the next corner.

It’s hardly surprising that many people, especially young people, are saying, Enough!

But reaction is almost always less beneficial than response.  And overreaction often propels us into a whole new quagmire of problems. Even worse, we won’t recognize them as problems until we’re already up to our neck in them.

On the one hand, it’s positive and encouraging that more and more people are rejecting the rat race for tranquility, discarding acquisitiveness in favor of minimalism, and replacing materialism with spirituality.

But when that impulse leads us to adopt the same attitude toward relationships, then we are setting ourselves up for a kind of isolation that masquerades as autonomy and is only attractive through the lens of superficiality.

There is a world of difference between peace of mind and complacency.  Conflating the two is the danger inherent in this week’s addition to the Ethical Lexicon: Lying Flatism

Please click to read the full column in Fast Company.


#ethics #values #purpose #vision #culture