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.
