"... On Jun 26, 7:36 am, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: ..."
> I believe we lie a lot about human behaviour and need to recognize the flaws > we carry. Without a doubt. We lie to everyone everyday about so much of ourselves it makes me wonder sometimes who among us really knows anything about themselves. But the lies which are the most destructive, the most debilitating, are the lies we tell ourselves. The lies we can tell when seeing ourselves in the mirror. Not only are they the worst sort of lie they are also told to the one person we should never ever lie to. Ourselves. Nothing is accomplishing by telling ourselves lies and a lot of good is destroyed. Yet accompanying this harsh indictment there is some forgiveness due as well because we are just starting to learn about ourselves and what we are capable of from one end of the scale to the other. I believe it was some ancient oracle who sagely advised that the person who set out on the journey of self-knowledge should be prepared to do battle to the death. It's not such an easy task and a whole subset of philosophy could (and probably has) been built around self- knowledge. > What I'm after is an understanding of how we end up under mad leaders like > Mao, > Hitler and Kim Jong IL, the extent to which this afflicts all > leadership and how we might be able to structure freedom from whatever > this is. I've no rational explanation for such aberrations other than random quirks of genetics which removes from some individuals any semblance of empathy for others and replaces it with madness. However, regarding those who allow themselves and their society to be dominated by such individuals, I would have to rely on Occam's timeworn razor and say ... fear. It is the simplest answer that fits all the circumstances and therefore most likely true. Fear also is the simplest answer to all the violence and corruption in the world. It is not difficult to read thr history of humankind in terms of fear and our reaction to it. So if this proposition holds water, it would then follow that anything that relieves or removes fear makes us the better for it. Having had fear as a constant companion throughout most of my life, I'd have to agree. "... On 25 June, 07:24, ashok tewari <[email protected]> wrote: ..." > > Great thought, Gruff ! The only hitch is this evidence that no amount of > > formal education or prosperity, political and economic growth, law and order > > or judicial improvements, will lead to elimination of those bondages ... It's not so much a hitch as it is simply the way things are. All the factors you mention are but our attempts to deal with the wrongs we perceive in ourselves and in the societies we create. Sometimes we stumble on such major truths and enshrine them in our most sacred documents: "... in order to form a more perfect union ..." We are a work in progress. > > because they are the negatives which human beings secrete from within > > themselves, because that is the nature and limitations of the psychical > > world we carry and inhabit within ourselves, because awakening into the > > spiritual realm is essentially a non - material, supramental and quantum > > process ... that needs love and desire for truth, for its own sake, for fuel I decline to admit to such limitations. It seems the nature of our species to continually reach beyond our abilities and this drive is what has led to the world we currently have. It is entirely of our own creation and we can not deny that fact nor the responsibility that comes with such a creation.
