Self-Deception

In keeping with the theme of this blog, as set out by the original adoption of the phrase that is now its title, I want to return to my roots here and comment on the remarkable ability that all humans have to plunge themselves head first and often irrevocably into a quagmire of self-deception.

Barring certain psychological parameters that may be breached by psychological disorders (in effect crossed wires inside a machine that would work perfectly well if the wires were not crossed, all our problems are our own damn fault.

If you will ever take the time to look back at what you've just done to yourself, you'll realise that any eventuality that was not the result of your making an informed, mature decision was in fact the result of your deep-seated reluctance to make such a decision.
People cheat, lie, and steal because they are dishonest with themselves. More often than not, they wish to punish themselves, a mentality that is reinforced by ALL major and minor religions, cults, and sects (effectively lumping all such organisations into the same category of existence).

At any given time, at any given mishap in your life, it may well have been your fault, but there is much less warrant for self-punishment than your feeble mind may think. It was your fault in the sense that you were not honest with yourself on some fundamental point - be it your opinion on a matter, or your feelings of "love" or any other emotion.

If it was not your fault, it was then a result of a situation brought about by someone else not being honest with themselves. In a truly free and utopian society, all people are honest in their own minds, and all are honest towards others. There would be no such thing as a misunderstanding, because no-one would ever misunderstand - we would all strive to make ourselves functionally clear.
And because all of our biggest problems are caused by misunderstandings - famine, war, pestilence, and death - there would be no such problems.

But such ideals are idealism and are labeled as quixotic and utopian, with the clear and intended meaning that it shall never come into being.

This is a sad reality of the human world - there are just too many of us around, and too many of us being dishonest with ourselves.

Any many or woman who would seek to take advantage of this sad reality is inevitably seen as "evil" - devilishly taking advantage of the probelms that other human beings have, and turning the situation to his own advantage. This is why Machiavelli was called evil as such, and his name was posted as synonymous with the Devil itself for centuries.

But is Machiavelli really so evil?
Is he not just a realistic man, seeing through a fantastic cloud of idealism and self-deceptive smoke-screens, and taking advantage in his own life where others have been to weak, or too stupid to take it themselves?

The description of the human state that I gave just moments ago would see us ALL wallowing in the muck. This is why our world needs leaders, and this is why we are not as strong a race of beings as we could really be. There is no god, and no unseen force holding anyone back. No culture is so pure and righteous that it should be upheld, and all other ideas that do not correspond be forsaken. Adaptablility is the only way for anything, be it tangible or intabgible, to survive in this world. Darwin was right, but on so many levels more than he himself first thought.

Honesty, true honesty, on all things, and in all hearts, is the perfect world. But the pursuit of perfection is endless, and our lives are not. This is why so many people are turned to "evil" in their lives. They have seen a step to get ahead, an taken it. Many times they have gone about it the wrong way, and not employed proper thought. This has led to worse consequences, and it is because there was no honesty at any step.

This may not make sense as I have poured it out through the keyboard right now, but one day I hope to sit down and mete it out properly.

For now, I will re-iterate that honesty is the endless pursuit of perfection, and the only reason that pursuit is endless is because we are incapable, in our small, human minds, of thinking mroe than 10 minutes into our own future, and being honest with ourselves about it.

As these parameters of reality become clearer to me, I shall perhaps have to resort to an existence whereby inside myself honesty reigns supreme, and outsided myself onyl adaptability can trupm all - Machiavelli was right. He was persecuted for it, and the underlying motive of that persecution was the reason he was right.

It's a funny thing, this thing we call 'life'.