Truth is a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality. It is something that exists outside of time and place, unaffected by evolving human notions. Although we may be able to better understand Truth over time, we can never change it. We can only deny it.

From the words of the second paragraph of the Declaration Of Independence it is clear that our nation owes its very existence to our founders’ belief in the fundamental certainty of Truth:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Truth is self-evident. You know it because it is what it is. It requires no proof or justification, only acceptance. In this way, Truth is different than Wisdom, which is practical insight with spiritual implications. Unlike Truth, Wisdom is not self-evident. It has to be revealed, either didactically or experientially, but usually (and best) through a process that involves both forms of learning through Positive Habit Transfer.

Correction requires a man to be Candid, meaning that he must graciously tell the hard Truth and demand to hear it from others. Easy Truths, like the sun will come up tomorrow, don’t require much Candor because they are spoken to a welcome ear. But hard Truths, the ones that are likely to instill Shame (if only for a moment), are hard to tell. They are at the heart of Correction, because conformity with hard Truth is what people by nature seek to avoid. It’s why the need for Correction exists in the first place.

But Candor is only half of Correction. A HIM must also be willing to share Wisdom by preaching what he Practices. You can tell a man that a tomato is a fruit. That’s Truth. But that knowledge won’t do him much good unless you also teach him why he shouldn’t use a tomato in a fruit salad. That’s Wisdom.

Telling Truth and sharing Wisdom will sometimes cause Shame, the painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. Shame is an emotional reaction to the zealous advocacy for Truth and Wisdom in the same way that fear is an emotional reaction to danger.

Fear, while unwelcome, is a necessary mechanism for survival. Without it, we would not have life. Shame is equally necessary, in that it makes the life we preserve through fear worth living. It spurs us on toward Virtuous behavior that is Advantageous to others rather than just ourselves. Without Shame, human beings could not combine together in Groups because it is the glue of Shared Virtue that holds people fast.

Because it views Shame-inducement as bullying, regardless of intent, Correction invites the wrath of Goo Nation. In his demonization of Shame, the Gooist ignores one of the first Virtues that he himself advocates to his own children–generosity.

When a boy refuses to share his toy trucks with his friend who doesn’t have any he is being governed by his natural instinct to look out for himself first. The boy knows that the decision to share his trucks belongs to him alone because the disposition of one’s private property is a form of liberty, and liberty is a self-evident Truth. But the father knows that the boy must also learn the Wisdom of generosity. Because he lacks experience, the boy doesn’t realize that there will be a day soon when it is he who has no toys.

Teaching the boy to temper the Truth of his liberty with the Wisdom of generosity requires Correction. Because it is a vitally important lesson, in that a child who never learns to share will be a very un-Joyful adult, the father not only repeatedly explains the Virtue of generosity to his son, he also uses Shame to Goad him into Practicing it.

Although he would deny it, the Gooist does the same thing when he seeks to pry the truck from his own son’s clutches by telling him that he should be ashamed of himself for playing with two trucks while his friend has none. Adverse to Shame as he claims to be, the Gooist knows that for generosity to become a positive Habit its antithesis, selfishness, must trigger a feeling of Shame in the heart of the son when the father is not there to Goad him. This method of Shame-Goading is vital in the process of Positive Habit Transfer. Without it, Advantageous tendencies cannot be ingrained in others.

Because he is a zealous advocate for Shared Virtue, the HIM engages in Dynamic Shame-Goading with with energetic and vigorous force. But Effective as it is at teaching others to voluntarily do what they should do rather than just instinctively doing what they can do, Dynamic Shame-Goading would be mere bullying if it were not for love. It doesn’t matter if a man speaks of unassailable Truth and invaluable Wisdom, if his intent is to diminish another man rather than build him up he is a bully not a HIM.

For without love, even a man who speaks like an angel is nothing but a banging gong.