It is very scarey when you realize that the people around you, especially the people in positions of power, are not being honest with themselves let alone other people. Realistic self-confidence is healthy, but unrealistic self-confidence is dangerous not only for the person who has it but also for others. The best source of knowledge a person can have is that of persons including him or herself who are willing and able to tell a person the truth no matter how unsettling. People make mistakes; they make the wrong decisions; they overlook a vital necessary fact or source of information; and they are afraid to admit it because of the feared consequences. People around this person collude with them because they fear the power and authority that person wields. The higher up you go the more likely this is to happen.
This can happen in psychology and psychiatry when professionals are making (sometimes) life or death decisions. One theory of psychotherapy is to help a person to be more honest with themselves and to be more open and honest about what they do and why they do it. If the therapist can’t be a role model for the patient, he or she is either a fake and/or feels very insecure in the position that they have put themselves in. No one is a saint and the person most likely to admit this is a person who others would call a saint. The problem is that viewing the practice of psychology or psychiatry as a business does not promote the career of a mental health professional who develops wisdom and with it the requisite self-knowledge. Materialism and the welding of power have been made more important than promoting the health and happiness of mankind.
In a perverse way, lack of self-confidence can promote dishonesty and deception. People can make wrong decisions in an attempt to prove that they are the one in power. They may have made a mistake but can or will not admit it and then it requires that they implement other equally wrong decisions to support the idea that they were right about the first decision or decisions
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Respect all things. Do you see beauty in everything? Have you ever destroyed something that somebody else put a lot of time and energy into? Have we become a destructive society? I am not suggesting that you become a hoarder; but that you value what you have around you. What is so much fun about mindless destruction?
It seems like we don’t value things, we don’t value people, we don’t value animals. Where are we going? It is unnatural to harm and kill others. Or where else does post traumatic stress come from if this doesn’t bother us? We (including plants and animals) are fearfully and wonderfully made.
We don’t respect ourselves? We take part in hazardous sports. We exercise to the point where it harms our bodies. We are now finding out that excessive running and being in marathons can damage the heart which is to begin with a muscle. You can overwork your body especially if you become addicted to the high you get from exercising. It’s not that it doesn’t feel good to do some movement and it up to a certain point makes you healthier. There’s the feeling of relaxation and accomplishment that you get afterwards when you stop to rest.
Don’t put yourself down. Don’t let others put you down. Teach your children to respect themselves and others. Build people up. Don’t tear them down. Why do we get a high from feeling better than someone else? Our chief competitors should be ourselves.
Yes, there is danger out there and we need to learn to respect that too. We have to evaluate our world and to protect ourselves from people who don’t respect human or animal rights.
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