The word Mokita is a fantastic word taken from a language called Kivila. It is spoken in Papua New Guinea. The best English translation you can get of Mokita is, “the truth we all know but agree not to talk about.”
There are several concepts in the English language related to the notion of Mokita, such as the “elephant in the room” (e.g., a horribly scarred accident victim sees friends for the first time, none of whom mention the drastically altered appearance), as well as so-called “polite fiction”, in which everyone is aware of the truth but pretends to believe some alternative version to avoid shame, embarrassment, or conflict. Euphemisms are often used for polite fiction (e.g., “he’s going to wash the car” when everyone knows he is going to see his mistress, drug dealer, or on his way to the horse track).
Mokita can do a lot of damage if the person on the other end of it is suffering from denial as it allows them to continue in their false sense of reality. On the other hand, if the person is aware of the situation, it can be a social nicety that helps them avoid anxiety or embarrassment.
Examples of Mokita
1.) The academic data is irrefutable that the children of successful parents tend to do better than the general population even if they are moved to broken or challenged homes, meaning that some of their life advantage comes from genetics that they inherited from their successful parents; things like a temperament conducive to success in modern culture or above-average intellect. Yet, to avoid the political landmine of eugenics, researchers don’t discuss this basic fact for fear of political and social discomfort.
2.) When a formerly sharp person begins to lose memory or experience cognitive decline as a result of advanced age, it is sometimes common for his or her colleagues to pretend not to notice in order to save their pride. The entire office won’t bring it up around the person, and silently fix whatever went wrong, allowing them to retire on top, gracefully, without even realizing that everyone else is aware of the degradation. In a company like Berkshire Hathaway, there are corporate policies in place to stop this from happening. Warren Buffett gave certain people the ability to intervene and, in his words, “take the keys away”, in case he started to lose his touch without realizing it; to stop Mokita from allowing him to harm the enterprise he spent a lifetime growing into one of the world’s preeminent conglomerates.
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