Exorcise the Spirit of ghosting
The Ethical Lexicon #8: What to say when you don't know what to say
Have you ever been ghosted?
You've never ghosted someone else, have you?
You know what it feels like. How do people rationalize such demeaning behavior?
Rationalization is the first enemy of ethics. Because there’s nothing human beings are better at than thinking our way to reasons that defend even the most indefensible kind of behavior.
The best kinds of rationalization contain just enough truth to convince us that they're sound. Add to that our natural predisposition to conflict avoidance and, voila! Ghosting becomes an act of virtue and kindness.
Except it isn’t. As anyone who has been ghosted will tell you.
Ghosting is both the sign of a dysfunctional culture and a sure way to make any culture more dysfunctional.
No one likes being ignored, and ignoring is one of the most insidious forms of bullying. The truly disturbing irony is that the same people who decry being ghosted are no less likely to ghost others.
So what can we do about it?
The answer lies in a common thread that connects exploding watermelons, the old Peanuts comic strip, and working for Nike.