Bush, Ahmedinejad, History, Truth, Pride
on
Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 8:45am
There are lessons all around us if we bother to look. In Ramadan, with the slight hallucinogenic aura that fasting imparts, events take on the clarity of the surreal. Bush/Ahmedinejad, a single character in two instances (which one is the evil twin?) show us something kind of creepy about the Glorious Ideal, the reason we carry on.
Bush/Ahmedinejad envision themselves as spiritual transformers of the world. Since you and I, dear reader, also aspire to be spiritual transformers of the world, we had better pay attention. If by some freak the likes of us should ever come to power, we will need to escape becoming what we see. Our being Good People won't protect us: it's the biggest trap there is. Bush/Ahmedinejad are quite convinced they are Good People.
Here's my take on how it works.
Though we tell ourselves we're free beings, that's more vanity than anything else. People usually run on automatic: we're largely driven. And it's survival that drives us, the basic thing the brain was built for. At the ground level, that's simple bodily survival, but kick things up a notch, and it's survival of the habit-that-is-me.
We conserve our habits through the personal story. Our personal story tells us what we're allowed to be, why we can only be the way we are. Generally we prefer the story to be flattering (like The Champion for alphas, The Loyal Retainer for betas, The Righteous Sufferer for gammas) — it makes it easier to avoid change, which is energy-intensive. Habitual function is lazy, favors the status quo.
So we tell ourselves the stories we want to hear, need to hear to sustain our running self-justification. But eventually our stories bump up against surprises, and with luck, a spark of consciousness flares.
Sometimes, in the light of consciousness, we grow a little humility. Then we may learn to devise flexible stories that redesign themselves when necessary, adjusting to incorporate new information. That's adaptation at work — the human survival edge. It permits us to out-maneuver all other animals.
If humility doesn't develop, though, something else happens. The requirements of self-justification may become so urgent that we lock on hard to our existing story. Giving that story up feels just like death. So our rationality freezes, and it's back to the lizard brain.
The Holocaust can't have happened, because then I would have to stop. Vietnam can't have been pointless, because then I would have to stop. And I can't stop. I can't stop.
In the closed loop of delusion, clinging to what feels like survival leads to greater and greater destruction. The only way out is to let go of pride — pride being another name for my favorite history, the one in which I am the Good Person, in which we are the Good People. In which God lives in my pocket and whispers in my ear about how it all depends on me. Justice. Freedom. And oh yes, peace. Peace most of all. The Glorious Ideal of a world at peace.
Bush/Ahmedinejad envision themselves as spiritual transformers of the world. Since you and I, dear reader, also aspire to be spiritual transformers of the world, we had better pay attention. If by some freak the likes of us should ever come to power, we will need to escape becoming what we see. Our being Good People won't protect us: it's the biggest trap there is. Bush/Ahmedinejad are quite convinced they are Good People.
Here's my take on how it works.
Though we tell ourselves we're free beings, that's more vanity than anything else. People usually run on automatic: we're largely driven. And it's survival that drives us, the basic thing the brain was built for. At the ground level, that's simple bodily survival, but kick things up a notch, and it's survival of the habit-that-is-me.
We conserve our habits through the personal story. Our personal story tells us what we're allowed to be, why we can only be the way we are. Generally we prefer the story to be flattering (like The Champion for alphas, The Loyal Retainer for betas, The Righteous Sufferer for gammas) — it makes it easier to avoid change, which is energy-intensive. Habitual function is lazy, favors the status quo.
So we tell ourselves the stories we want to hear, need to hear to sustain our running self-justification. But eventually our stories bump up against surprises, and with luck, a spark of consciousness flares.
Sometimes, in the light of consciousness, we grow a little humility. Then we may learn to devise flexible stories that redesign themselves when necessary, adjusting to incorporate new information. That's adaptation at work — the human survival edge. It permits us to out-maneuver all other animals.
If humility doesn't develop, though, something else happens. The requirements of self-justification may become so urgent that we lock on hard to our existing story. Giving that story up feels just like death. So our rationality freezes, and it's back to the lizard brain.
The Holocaust can't have happened, because then I would have to stop. Vietnam can't have been pointless, because then I would have to stop. And I can't stop. I can't stop.
In the closed loop of delusion, clinging to what feels like survival leads to greater and greater destruction. The only way out is to let go of pride — pride being another name for my favorite history, the one in which I am the Good Person, in which we are the Good People. In which God lives in my pocket and whispers in my ear about how it all depends on me. Justice. Freedom. And oh yes, peace. Peace most of all. The Glorious Ideal of a world at peace.
