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Tempting Gossip (email M.S 26Apr2006)
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In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to
be held in high esteem because of his knowledge.
One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher
and said, "Do you know what I just heard
about your friend?"
"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied.
"Before telling me anything I`d like you
to pass a little test. It’s called the
Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?"
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"That’s right," Socrates continued.
"Before you talk to me about my friend, it might
be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re
going to say. That’s why I call it the triple
filter test. The first filter is Truth.
Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about
to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just
heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you
don’t really know if it's true or not. Now let's
try the second filter, the filter of Goodness.
Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something
good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want
to tell me something bad about him, but you’re
not certain it’s true. You may still pass the
test though, because there’s one filter left:
the filter of Usefulness.
Is what you want to tell me about my friend going
to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what
you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even
useful, why tell it to me at all?"
This is why Socrates was a great philosopher &
held in such high esteem.
Friends, use this triple filter each time you hear
loose talk about any of your friends.
We teach
little by what we say; we teach more by what we do;
we teach most by what we are…
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