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The hardest and longest lesson in life is learning how not to believe in hypocritical leaders. Unfortunately that turns into a life of significant mistrust and questioning most everything that is passed down the pike.
So much of our lives are taken up with trying to figure out our positions on life's institutions...governments, religions, non-profits, NGOS...everyone seems to have hidden agendas in this world. Until we can sort it all out...if ever...we are better off being very scrutinous and paranoid about what we see and hear from media and power mongers tied to these institutions.
In light of many of my past blogs on similar subject matter, I think I should make a clarification on my take on the institution of religion in case I have not been clear before. There is a difference between ¨faith¨ and ¨religion¨. I believe every person operates in their life based on some form of faith. We believe certain things to be true not because we know exactly how or why they are...but by our experience and limited understanding of life's mysteries, we make certain fundamental decisions of what we think based on ¨feeling¨ or sentiments beyond pure reason. Some things are beyond our reasoning powers...so we all make certain fundamental judgments about what we think or feel about that which we don´t understand. This form of faith is not bad and is fundamental to our human existence...as long as we don´t lose our objectivity.
In the case of other people, we tend to relate to them based on our attraction, commonality and/or past experience with them. The longer we know them and observe their consistency or lack thereof, the more we trust or believe in them...or NOT. At the same time we realize that people are not static and are subject to change. Change can be good or bad. In some cases people make choices that make them better or more valuable humans. In the case of many the opposite is unfortunately a reality. Corruption, destitution, anxiety, depression...sh-t happens in life where people change unfortunately for the worse. Often times it is power that corrupts...and when that happens...well, ¨power corrupts absolutely¨.
Religion is primarily a way in which to institutionalize faith and/or an attempt to make our individual faiths conform to some centralized, socially acceptable way to think or feel about the unknowns in life. It is deemed heretical within religion to think or believe independently about most anything.
Fundamentally, I now see religion as one of the greatest manipulative forces in life to deceive and control the masses...and I reject being part of anything that divides and segregates mankind based on groupings of blind faith objectives. Religion is basically formed from the ego...an extreme sense of selfishness...in which humans strive to have power and dominion over other large masses of people, even within families, by sheer insistence that THEY are connected to the TRUE God. This is a heady claim.
Institutions devise dogmas and perform delusive acts of rewriting histories or worse yet fabricating emotional and ¨spiritual¨ manipulation through which we bring up children or poor, weak minded people to follow rituals and rites that have no real basis on reason to support them. This is not real ¨faith¨. This is outright deceit and delusion. It is amazing how anxious we humans are to believe what we WANT to believe when all around us is scientific and rational truths that contradict the dogma. Religions are blind...but we don`t want to see. It is too sad, and for most programmed humans impossible, to reconsider their false presuppositions. I know...I have been down that painful road.
The same manipulations and false reasoning are behind nationalism and patriotism. Just like faith...there is nothing inherently wrong with being proud about ones heritage, race or traditions. But, when that pride leads to exclusivity and delusion based on one race or nationality being superior over the other...then the ego of nationality, just like religion, has led to over-sizing the truth and creating all kinds of aberrational thinking about what it means to be part of any particular race or nationality.
We just completed the 2012 Olympics in London...and while it was exciting to see all the pomp and circumstance and the greatest talents of each country competing against each other in so many sports...there was also for me an ugly side to these competitions. The extreme nationalism and fervor over flags and patriotic hymns for me continue to support a false sense of pride in a majority of governments and institutions that seek to destroy or take credit for the very individualized efforts and talents these athletes have achieved. Countries or religions should not be given the credit for these superhuman feats. Individual accomplishment should...the human spirit if you will. Yet...you constantly see these brainwashed yet talented performers kissing their crosses, crossing themselves to the heavens, and/or running around arenas draped in the flags of their countries. The more I understand the power of statism over our globe, the more I abhor these manifestations of statist pride.
I know...most of you probably feel it is quite OK to have national pride and to celebrate ethnicity. We all have strong attachments to our roots. Again, just like faith, I have no fundamental difference with that core value. The problem is...by buying into the institutional aspect of this hook line and sinker...we end up carrying a lot of ugly filth and hypocrisy along with us. We aren't even conscious of it.
Very few individuals in history of the Olympics have stood up against their enslaving governments and tyrannical leaders. Lets face it, a majority of these competitors are NOT free individuals. They are limited by their passports and nationalities on where they can travel, who they can associate with and what they can think or believe...at least publicly. If you think Russians and the Chinese are free to come and go as they please, you are sadly mistaken. Only the rich and privileged are allowed that luxury. And how about those poor Cubans, Venezuelans or Arab state competitors? Do you think they have a choice about which flag they will carry or which God they will worship? How can we be proud and happy with these realities for these people? Yes, it is amazing what they do in the name of their god and country...but do we really need that association with god and country to appreciate the significance?
The world is increasingly based on the existence of ¨smoke and mirrors¨. There is very little absolute truth behind how people live. Life´s meaning and lifestyles are determined by media, institutions and cultural machinations that tell people how they will think, eat and live. Even money itself is an illusion. What is REAL money? What is it worth? Who is determining its value? Markets? Think again. Most all of us are living as slaves to institutional-ism. Very few of us ever reach a point of having enough ¨money¨ or knowledge to live truly free and individually. The chains of our minds are jerked around every 2 minutes by media, TV, radio, internet, billboards and magazines that ALL lie to us every moment of every day about what is real or truly significant.
We are trusting in hypocrites all of our lives...and becoming just like them. In general none of us are truly free...and we don´t even care. We have given up pursuit of self and settled for fitting in. We have traded in our dreams for the yoke of complacency and pleasure. We refuse to stand up and be counted for in any real way on what we think and believe. We avoid conflict at all cost...even when it costs us our freedom and sovereignty as a person.
I have come to the point where I don´t believe the world deserves freedom. We are not willing to pay the cost. We are not willing to take care of ourselves. We want socialism and absolute controls over all of life`s risks. We trust in the social welfare systems of our governments more than in ourselves. We are much more comfortable trusting in the Hypocrites to take care of us. We deserve what we get...which is NOTHING.
(...a late footnote. I cant help but mention the tremendous hypocrisy happening currently in the Julian Assange Wikileaks case. While he may not be the most likable, purely motivated guy on the planet, these Western governments pursuing prosecutions of him without trial or due process based on his outing government communications FULL of proof for these hypocracies of which we speak is obviously tainted with injustice and fabrications against him. And then in turn today, the USA government has the audacity to speak out against Putin and Russia for prosecuting some girl rockers for speaking out against the Russian government? Is this not obvious hypocrisy of the first degree? )
2 comments:
Muy acertado este blog. Realmente los lideres politicos y religiosos son verdaderos lideres hipocritas que su unico deseo es controlar las masas para alimentar su ego, su bolsillo y su poder, con la fe y aceptacion del resto de la humanidad que parecen como inocentes corderos llevados al matadero como ciegos.
Pero, por otro lado, el ser humano por naturaleza necesita creer en algo, en alguna institucion, ya sea religiosa, gubernamental, etc. Necesita un modelo a seguir, si no seriamos algo parecido a los vegetales, solo crecer, reproducirse y morir..
Por eso la gente cree en sus lideres, espirituales y gubernamentales.
Es una competencia, como en los Olimpicos pasados, como tu dices tienen su lado obscuro. Pero el ser humano, necesita competir, necesita creerse el mejor y quien mejor para sentir esto que tu.
El impetu y el orgullo patriota alli juega su punto mas importante.
Por eso estoy totalmente de acuerdo que entre mas se estudia, se viaja, se conocen diferentes culturas y personas, se enriquece tu vida como ser humanos, se adquiere mas cultura y educacion. En resumen, entre mas ignorante es la humanidad, es mas facilmente manipulable por estas instituciones. La gente mas educada cree menos en religiones y gobiernos. Pero son discriminados y en algunos casos llamados locos o genios locos si son exitosos.
Pero desafortunadamente toda la historia de la humanidad es movida por lideres hipocritas en todo el mundo y todas las generaciones que se fueron, son y seran.
Ese es el triste destino del ser humano, dejarse manipular y dominar. Los que no seguimos esta tendencia, somos diferentes, extranos, locos y hasta poseidos por el demonio. Jajaja.
BB
Very successful this blog. Actually political leaders and religious leaders are true hypocrites that his only desire is to control the masses to feed your ego, your wallet and your power, faith and acceptance of the rest of humanity that seem as innocent as lambs led to slaughter blind.
But on the other hand, humans by nature need to believe in something, in any institution, whether religious, government, etc.. Need a role model, if we would not be anything like the plants, only grow, reproduce and die ..
That's why people believe in their leaders, spiritual and government.
It's a competition, as in past Olympics, as you say have their dark side. But man, you need to compete, you need to believe the best and who better to feel this as you.
The impetus and patriotic pride there plays its most important.
So I totally agree that the more studying, traveling, different cultures and people know, enriches your life as a human being, one becomes more culture and education. In short, the more ignorant is humanity, is more easily manipulated by these institutions. More educated people believe less in religions and governments. But they are discriminated against and sometimes called insane or crazy geniuses if they are successful.
But unfortunately the history of mankind is driven by hypocritical leaders around the world and all generations that were, are and will be.
That is the sad fate of the human being be manipulated and mastered. Those who do not follow this trend, we are different, strange, crazy and even possessed by the devil. Hahaha.
BB
The philosophies of various religions as well as nationalism have been ingrained in mankind for generations at the loss of what I consider the guiding light philosophy which is inherent in mankind…the philosophy of reason.
We are all born with reason as an inherent capacity human to make sense of things, to establish and verify what is presented to us as facts, and to change or justify our actions, practices, institutions, and beliefs. We all have an internal vision of how we think should be which comes from our minds. The mindless are guided by tradition and popular beliefs, but we should all realize that our reason is what we really need to follow.
Rand points out in her writings that through traditional belief, both political and religious that we need to ethical. The definition of ethics has been self-sacrifice and “giving up” things that make us inherently happy. We need to live our lives as free individuals, and use the guides that our reason gives us to do it with integrity, productive, and self reliant on our own abilities. For the “religiously minded” this means, at least to me, that God is in each one of us and this is where our reason emanates. This is the foundation of the truths and values each one of us should live our lives…not by an institution, either religious or political.
Men are social beings, and by following the philosophy of reason we honor and act as benefactors to mankind rather than sacrificing for others or renunciation of what we have or have the potential to accomplish.
Thanks for this article and pointing out that by following others, in most cases, we are following hypocrites…including ourselves.
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