Self-Delusion
This morning I was listening to an interview of Robert Fisk, the Middle Eastern correspondent of The Independent on Democracy Now. He pointed out Secretary Rice's self-delusion during her speech in Lebanon, when she said that she could see "the birth pangs of a new middle-east", when, as Fisk notes "babies [were] being pulled dead out of the buildings" in Lebanon. Clearly, this statement shows how deeply she is entangled in either her delusions or the delusions of Israeli and American governments.
Dictionary.com defines delusion as "a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion". Rice's delusion is not unique. Assuming I am not self-deluding myself, I came up with a couple of other examples: 1. A Muslim suicide bomber or "Jihadist" as they are called in western media (and I mean no offence to Muslims - I am just talking from my rationale), who is willing to take many other innocent lives with his/hers, seems like a person under self-delusion to me; 2. Some of President Bush's speeches can be best understood only by those people who are just as deluded as he is.
Obviously self-delusion is not limited to politicians and the so-called terrorists. If we introspect just for a moment we can easily note that we are often under self-delusion. We often find in our own lives that there is no rhyme or rationale for some things we do. Here is an instance from my life: After a five hour drive, in a physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted state I once decided to go for a run in the belief (self-delusion!) that its going to make me feel better.
Can you note instances where you have been under self-delusion? Why do you think we are deluding ourselves? Is it our fear of facing the fact?
In my case above, I clearly did not want to be miserable - a fact that I was trying to escape. But what does a suicide bomber have to escape from? He/she is willing to give his/her life! The apparent self-delusion here is martyrdom. Similarly, the apparent self-delusion of the American government is a "democratic" middle-east (Why exactly do they care about that?).
I think understanding self-delusion is very important to everyone. If every individual can cure him/her-self of delusion (and I think it can mainly be cured by introspection) then society and a nation at large will be clear in its judgment. I greatly appreciate your views on this topic.
Dictionary.com defines delusion as "a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion". Rice's delusion is not unique. Assuming I am not self-deluding myself, I came up with a couple of other examples: 1. A Muslim suicide bomber or "Jihadist" as they are called in western media (and I mean no offence to Muslims - I am just talking from my rationale), who is willing to take many other innocent lives with his/hers, seems like a person under self-delusion to me; 2. Some of President Bush's speeches can be best understood only by those people who are just as deluded as he is.
Obviously self-delusion is not limited to politicians and the so-called terrorists. If we introspect just for a moment we can easily note that we are often under self-delusion. We often find in our own lives that there is no rhyme or rationale for some things we do. Here is an instance from my life: After a five hour drive, in a physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted state I once decided to go for a run in the belief (self-delusion!) that its going to make me feel better.
Can you note instances where you have been under self-delusion? Why do you think we are deluding ourselves? Is it our fear of facing the fact?
In my case above, I clearly did not want to be miserable - a fact that I was trying to escape. But what does a suicide bomber have to escape from? He/she is willing to give his/her life! The apparent self-delusion here is martyrdom. Similarly, the apparent self-delusion of the American government is a "democratic" middle-east (Why exactly do they care about that?).
I think understanding self-delusion is very important to everyone. If every individual can cure him/her-self of delusion (and I think it can mainly be cured by introspection) then society and a nation at large will be clear in its judgment. I greatly appreciate your views on this topic.
posted by Vasu at
9:18 PM
5 Comments:
I think one of the sources of self delusion is a kind of negligence and arrogance that we have internally and normally we don't try to change it. In this respect I quote David Foster Wallace from his very nice commencement speech at Kenyon University. Please read the full speech at http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html to see its relevance to your post.
"Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe; the realist, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness because it's so socially repulsive. But it's pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real."
By
Pedram, at 11:07 PM, September 05, 2006
Indeed self-delusion is a direct ramification of self-centeredness, particularly when the latter turns into an obsession. Self-delusion often manifests as arrogance to others, but I think the deluded person feels they are just doing/stating the obvious.
The speaker makes a very important point: "Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of." It is very true. What is more important here is the boundary that we are drawing around the center. A center does not exist without a periphery.
A self-deluded person has very rigid and close boundaries which prevents them from accepting other views, which are often more rational (to the majority).
By
Vasu, at 11:36 PM, September 05, 2006
Vasu Jaan,
Just came to say hi and thank you for the comment you left in my blog and taking care of pishi :) Anar told me that you acted with paternal emotions :)
Many thanks from Pishi's father and me!
By
koozeh, at 9:25 AM, September 06, 2006
we were talking to Sh yesterday and we talked about how these corporates create a delusion for people about their job and who they are. I think that is a really good example. Some of them make you think that working there is the biggest deal and it does actually define you or if you can't do it then you are a loser.
By
Anar, at 6:42 AM, September 12, 2006
That's true! This means that either the higher-ups in those corporates are themselves delusional or they are very cunning and know exactly how to play others around to get what they want. I think you need to have both to be a leader in corporate America and in the World for that matter.
You make an important point when you say "...working there is the biggest deal and it does actually define you...". You can see how someone can become a victim to propaganda easily. Clearly, only we can know who we are. We can never fit into an image drawn by someone else - if we try to we are only fooling ourselves (another ugly facet of self-delusion!).
By
Vasu, at 12:41 PM, September 12, 2006
Post a Comment
<< Home