We often use language to ‘have it both ways’. We unconsciously shift the meaning of particular words to the circumstances and emotions of our moment. This permits us to be comfortably, albeit unwittingly, self-dishonest and hypocritical. As chapter 18 suggests, When intelligence increases, there exists great falseness.
Diligently working out correlations forces one’s thoughts to be much more consistent in word meaning. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations ) This goes a long way to deepen self-honesty and eliminate hypocrisy. Of course, this is the rub. After all, true self-honestly is uncomfortable because it confronts one’s fondly held biases and preconceived beliefs. As they say, ignorance is bliss. But is it really?