Difference between revisions of "Lies"
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| + | I learned that so much that I was doing was false, and I think I learned this, yeah there was a reason that this came to me so clearly. I was trying to understand why people did terrible things. And I was really concentrating on the terrible terrible things things that people do. And I was interested in Auschwitz for example. And not as a political phenomenon but as a psychological phenomena. I was curious about how you could be an Auschwitz guard. And I wasn’t really curious how you could be one, because, well, you could be one, of course. I was more curious how I could be one, being such a good person as I thought I was. And I also knew that people, many people, did many terrible things during the 20th century and the idea that I was somehow better than them or that I would assume a priori that I was better than them and that I wouldn’t have made the same choices or worse, had I been in the same situation was a very very very dangerous supposition. And in fact a sufficiently dangerous supposition to bring about the very danger that I assumed was worth avoiding. I had this idea, you know, that what had happened especially in Nazi Germany but also in the Soviet Union, shouldn’t happen again. What we needed to do because of what had happened in the 20th century, especially because we also managed to create hydrogen bombs, and that we had become so technological powerful, was that we really needed to understand why it happened. And that perhaps we could go deep enough in that understanding, which I think is what happens when you go deep in that understanding, so that you could stop it. Because if you understand the problem, maybe you can solve it. I came to believe that the problem was as Solzhenitsyn said that the problem is that the line between good and evil runs down every human heart. And I was reading Jung at the same time and he believed that the human soul was a tree whose roots grew all the way to hell and believed also that in the full investigation of the shadow, which was the dark side of the human psyche, it was bottomless essentially. It was like an experience of hell. And that also struck me as true. And that the way to stop those sorts of things from happening was to stop yourself from being the sort of person who would do it. Who would even start to do it, because the other thing you learn, when you learn about atrocities of that sort, ( you could read ‘ordinary men’, which is an unbelievably great study of exactly this sort of phenomena ) for me it was a matter of understanding that if we want this sort of thing to not happen anymore then we have to start to become the sort of people who wouldn’t do it. It seems rather self evident, all things considered, unless you believe we were the pawns of social forces for example, like the Marxists do. And I don’t believe that because we’re also the creator of social forces, and we’re also capable to standing up to social forces. Because, I would say, the individual is more powerful than the social force all things considered, interestingly enough. That the way to stop such things from happening, the way to remember properly is to understand that you could do it. That you could do those terrible things. Because the people who did them were like you. And that the way out of that is to stop being like that. And the way you stop being like that is, well, at least in part, by ceasing to tell yourself lies that you don’t believe in and that you know you shouldn’t act out. And you know, that’s made a huge difference in my life, for better, for worse, I mean it was a very uncanny experience I would say. Because it’s very discombobulating to experience yourself as fragmented enough so that much of what you do and say is actually false. <ref>[https://youtu.be/al5PltVOYAo The Painful Truth | Jordan B Peterson]</ref> | ||
===== Are Lies Demolishing Your Life? ===== | ===== Are Lies Demolishing Your Life? ===== | ||
Revision as of 00:08, 27 May 2020
Contents
Definition
Applications
Reasons for Not to Lie to Yourself
I learned that so much that I was doing was false, and I think I learned this, yeah there was a reason that this came to me so clearly. I was trying to understand why people did terrible things. And I was really concentrating on the terrible terrible things things that people do. And I was interested in Auschwitz for example. And not as a political phenomenon but as a psychological phenomena. I was curious about how you could be an Auschwitz guard. And I wasn’t really curious how you could be one, because, well, you could be one, of course. I was more curious how I could be one, being such a good person as I thought I was. And I also knew that people, many people, did many terrible things during the 20th century and the idea that I was somehow better than them or that I would assume a priori that I was better than them and that I wouldn’t have made the same choices or worse, had I been in the same situation was a very very very dangerous supposition. And in fact a sufficiently dangerous supposition to bring about the very danger that I assumed was worth avoiding. I had this idea, you know, that what had happened especially in Nazi Germany but also in the Soviet Union, shouldn’t happen again. What we needed to do because of what had happened in the 20th century, especially because we also managed to create hydrogen bombs, and that we had become so technological powerful, was that we really needed to understand why it happened. And that perhaps we could go deep enough in that understanding, which I think is what happens when you go deep in that understanding, so that you could stop it. Because if you understand the problem, maybe you can solve it. I came to believe that the problem was as Solzhenitsyn said that the problem is that the line between good and evil runs down every human heart. And I was reading Jung at the same time and he believed that the human soul was a tree whose roots grew all the way to hell and believed also that in the full investigation of the shadow, which was the dark side of the human psyche, it was bottomless essentially. It was like an experience of hell. And that also struck me as true. And that the way to stop those sorts of things from happening was to stop yourself from being the sort of person who would do it. Who would even start to do it, because the other thing you learn, when you learn about atrocities of that sort, ( you could read ‘ordinary men’, which is an unbelievably great study of exactly this sort of phenomena ) for me it was a matter of understanding that if we want this sort of thing to not happen anymore then we have to start to become the sort of people who wouldn’t do it. It seems rather self evident, all things considered, unless you believe we were the pawns of social forces for example, like the Marxists do. And I don’t believe that because we’re also the creator of social forces, and we’re also capable to standing up to social forces. Because, I would say, the individual is more powerful than the social force all things considered, interestingly enough. That the way to stop such things from happening, the way to remember properly is to understand that you could do it. That you could do those terrible things. Because the people who did them were like you. And that the way out of that is to stop being like that. And the way you stop being like that is, well, at least in part, by ceasing to tell yourself lies that you don’t believe in and that you know you shouldn’t act out. And you know, that’s made a huge difference in my life, for better, for worse, I mean it was a very uncanny experience I would say. Because it’s very discombobulating to experience yourself as fragmented enough so that much of what you do and say is actually false. [1]
Are Lies Demolishing Your Life?
You read Solzhenitsyn, you think why did the Soviet Union became the absolute hellhole that it was. Solzhenitsyn says "Because everyone lied". Isn't that interesting! Well that isn't the hypothesis you hear everyday. So then you think about Freud and you think about well what's the major cause of mental illness? Repression. Well, that's a lie, fundamentally. I mean Freud played around with it to some degree so it's sort of like lying by omission actually than lying be commission. But it doesn't matter. It is still lying. Jung says the same thing. Wouldn't it be interesting if the fundamental root of psychopathology was the lie. The fundamental root of political psychopathology is the lie. What if that's what is demolishing your life? People think especially when they are nihilistic and they become destructive that the universe is an unfair and an arbitrary place and it is basically bent on their random destruction while they suffer. It is something like that. Ya, Right! What do you do under those circumstances? That's the question. Well one potential answer is: Twist the thing so that may be you get what you hypothetically want out of it. The other is: Rely on your perception and your capacity for accurate representation, communicate that and take your chances. [2]
Lies Corrupt The Structure That You Use To Interact With Being
If you lie to yourself or to other people, then you corrupt the structure that you use to interact with being. You corrupt it. And if you corrupt it, then if you listen to it, it will guide you to the wrong way. Or maybe it’ll be so corrupted you can’t listen to it at all and then you’ll have to listen to somebody else. And that might not be a good thing, especially if you’re already corrupted. Because then you’ll listen to the person who tells you to do what you really want to do but won’t admit it to yourself.[3]
"If you pay attention to what you say, ... how the words make you feel, you can tell whether the words you are saying something that is based on rock not sand."[4]
“Don't be thinking that your errors aren’t linked to hell because they are. If you look at what happened in the twentieth century, the brilliant commentators on the twentieth century totalitarian states and all their atrocities said the same thing over and over: it isn’t top down evil leader manipulating innocent masses. That’s not it. It’s the moral failings of every single individual unwilling to say their truth, unwilling to act out what they know to be right, that accumulate and produce the catastrophic state. And so when you are fussing about with your life, when you are not manifesting your potential, when you’re falsifying your speech and your action in the service of short term expedience, you are working to bring about hell on earth, and that’s true.” [Citation Needed]
“When you have something to say, Silence is a Lie” [Citation Needed]
Interpretations
See Also
References
