Dignity and Grace vs Psychological Blindness
Two Alternative Visions for 2023
Some thoughts about the coming year.
It seems to me that, as the year turns, the world still hangs in the balance at this time. It feels to me that 2023 will be the tipping point. We could either continue to descend in to a nightmarish everlasting dystopic tyranny of the transhumanist technocrats, or emerge into a new enlightenment, and evolve as a society and possibly also as a fully biological, natural species.
Dignity and Grace
In my current view, the determining factor seems to be whether we are going to afford each other dignity and grace, or not. Here, by dignity, I am meaning:
“the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically”,
and
“the state or quality of being worthy of honour or respect”.
By grace, I am meaning:
“courteous goodwill”.
One possible path being laid for us in 2023 is the vicious circle of the maximal with-holding of dignity and grace from one another. This appears or be the chosen route that the anti-humanist, transhumanist, technocrats have in mind for us. It seems to me, from everything they are telling us, and actually doing, they would rather have us hold each other in maximal suspicion and contempt. In this way, they are attempting to shift the blame for the ills of the world on to us, and to keep us divided and at each other’s throats.
The alternative path is the virtuous circle of affording each other the maximal benefit of the doubt, freely granting dignity and grace to the vast majority of humans, and helping each other to live up to being worthy of this. In this framework, it is not individual humans who are scourge on the face of the Earth, far from it, but it is the very powers-that-be that want to shift the blame onto us. It is the big powerful corporate entities and enabling governments, and the corrupt people they are formed of, who are doing all the damage, and who are putting humanity in such a bad light.
The greatest danger I see for the coming year, is that not enough people will follow the virtuous path of resistance, and the plans to drag us down the vicious path the elites seem to have planned for us will come to pass. We need more people to wake up, but too many are still turning a blind eye to the manipulation.
Psychological Blindness
The question remains why are so many folks unwilling or unable see the danger?
I watched a podcast yesterday, which gave me a framework for understanding this: "willful blindness". This was originally a legal term used
“to describe a situation in which a person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally keeping themselves unaware of facts that would render them liable or implicated”,
but is now used more broadly to mean:
“any situation in which people intentionally turn their attention away from an ethical problem, for instance, because the problem is too disturbing for people to want it dominating their thoughts, or from the knowledge that solving the problem would require extensive effort”,
or
“deliberate failure to make a reasonable inquiry of wrongdoing despite suspicion or an awareness of the high probability of its existence”.
The synopsis of a book I found on the subject sums up the issue well.
“Why, after every major accident and blunder, do we look back and ask, how could we have been so blind? Why do some people see what others don't? Drawing on studies by psychologists and neuroscientists, and from interviews with business leaders, whistle blowers and white collar criminals… exploring the reasons that individuals and groups are blind to impending personal tragedies, corporate collapses, engineering failures – even crimes against humanity.”
“We turn a blind eye in order to feel safe, to avoid conflict, to reduce anxiety and to protect prestige. It makes us feel good at first, with consequences we don’t see”.
I think “wilful” can be bit of a misnomer here, as it implies voluntary, premediated or conscious inaction. It seems to me that in most cases this is an autonomic or subconscious or default psychological self-defence mechanism, which, at the least, takes a great deal of self-awareness or resistance to overcome. I will use the term "psychological blindness" instead, therefore. Indeed, I think psychological blindness is strongly linked with the self-delusions of left brain hemisphere over-activation induced by defensive Nervous System states, see
As a relevant example, such psychological blindness is very common for us folks who suffer from chronic illness and trauma, where we ignore and ignore the signs and symptoms, and the messages from our bodies, until it is far too late, and our bodies eventually say “no more”.
So I think that psychological blindness readily explains why most people subconsciously seek blissful ignorance of what is coming down the line, and of what the powers that be say themselves they have planned for us. The concept that our governments and elites not only don't have our best interest at heart, but also actually hold us in such contempt that they are quite prepared to harm us for their own gains, and to maintain and grow their own power, is very frightening to contemplate.
The irony is that if we all woke up to this and resisted, we would be safe, through sheer force of numbers. The number of truly evil, psychopathic and controlling humans is relatively tiny. The problem being that too many of these few harmful, psychopathic humans have now worked their way into all the seats of power. That they are few in number is precisely why they need to keep the rest of us divided, because if we all stood up to them together, they are easily dealt with.
The problem I still see is that trying to force the eyes open of folks who are currently stuck in psychological blindness is likely to result in very negative outcomes, violent reactions, and demonization of the truth tellers. It will backfire.
Yet I feel we can still hope to reach more people by demonstrating that the vast majority of humans are not bad people, are just doing their best in a crazy world, and are indeed well worthy of dignity of grace. We can do this by being the example, being the best versions of ourselves, and sticking to the virtuous path ourselves. We can help people see where the blame for most of the world’s ills actually lie, and reveal the contradictions in the anti-humanist narratives being sold to us.
The synopsis of the book mentioned above also has this advice:
“but greater understanding leads to solutions, and Heffernan shows how – by challenging our biases, encouraging debate, discouraging conformity, and not backing away from difficult or complicated problems – we can be more mindful of what's going on around us and be proactive instead of reactive.”
On my part, in 2023 I resolve to keep writing in support of the side of the light, keep speaking out against the few psychopaths in control, keep trying to fully recover from a chronic disease, to show that this is possible, and continue to work on becoming a better, calmer, more dignified and graceful person.
"Willful blindness" as a psychological coping mechanism makes a lot of sense to me. I have seen it as an organizational consultant, where a business owner or manager sees what must be done to change a problematic situation, yet does not act to remedy it. I see two things here. One is that they are overwhelmed by the process. Two is that they are trying to see the ultimate end point of a solution process. As a result, they back off, and willful blindness takes over.
I see part of the problem here is not having clarity about the values that one lives by. If our values are sort of downloaded from the corporate HR manual, then those values are not the foundation of belief in our work. In my leadership model, Circle of Impact, one of the three dimensions are Ideas. Within that dimension are the four connecting ideas of Values, Purpose, Vision, and Impact. The latter three are based on the former. We are clear about the values that matter to us when we are willing to sacrifice some benefit to hold those values as foundational to our lives and work. I see Dignity and Grace as those kind of values. They are my values incorporated in the single idea of Honor, my core value. In other words, I will treat everyone with honor, with dignity and grace, regardless of who they are. For me to act otherwise is to violate my own value system. It doesn't mean that there is not conflict in my life. It does mean that I view everyone through the lens of honor. And, to the best of my ability, I am learning to not practice "willful blindness" toward people. I don't want to delude myself about people. It means that I say No when it reinforces both my core values, and is a statement to the other person about what I think of them. If they refuse my expression of honor, and many people have, it is not my responsibility. For to treat people with dignity and grace, is to treat them as persons responsible for the circumstances of their lives. It is at this point that I see in people their potential for impact and value their agency as human beings. The benefit is that it has opened up my life to hundreds of people who are individuals who also treat other people with dignity, grace, and honor. My choices during the pandemic were counter-cultural, even as a very traditional kind of person, because I refused to treat myself with dishonor. The circle of dignity and grace is eternal.
Gary, once again, you have said things that have significance for our lives right now. Thank you.
Lovely! "On my part, in 2023 I resolve to keep writing in support of the side of the light, keep speaking out against the few psychopaths in control, keep trying to fully recover from a chronic disease, to show that this is possible, and continue to work on becoming a better, calmer, more dignified and graceful person."
Thank you!