THE SELF: A SERIES ABOUT YOU

This series has started but you can catch up.
Really, it its too important to ignore (in my opinion and although I’m biased, I’m also right!)

Today, we begin a series on the Self, a series about you and what makes you tick.

You are too important to skip this.

The most complicated thing is the world is a human.

You are much more complicated than a computer–if less predictable–when it’s not acting up!

How do we get to know each other?

How do we get to know ourselves?

That’s what we try to find out at Self-Knowledge College.

EVIL OR …

I used to think some people were evil incarnate.

I still think that’s true, but most are sick rather than evil.

They are mentally, emotionally or psychologically damaged.

We can understand that and be compassionate sometimes but what if they hurt us or our families?

What about the lone wolves like the whacko who killed the people in the club in Orlando recently?

Or the demented person, who, more deranged by what he (accurately, even in his madness) perceived police racism against blacks, killed those policemen in Dallas–even though, even though– the people of Dallas rallied to the policemen’s  defense saying that city had pretty good relations with the force.

We know he was deranged yet we have difficulty feeling sympathy for him. Yet we understand the prompt.

But all our sympathy goes to the victims and maybe the father of the killer.

How crazy this gets.

What about those terrorists who killed the writers and cartoonists  in Paris? 

Were they lone wolves? No.

Were they sent from a foreign land to wreak havoc. No, they were French.

Well, ostensibly French. They were disaffected to put it mildly.

Did they come up with this stuff themselves? 

Were they coached and trained elsewhere. Almost certainly.

How much blame can they take? A lot.

Are they evil?

They certainly don’t think so. They think we are evil.  They think we are infidels.

It isn’t simply a matter of perspective, of course; this was a terrorist act.

THE GOOD And THE BAD

When you look at people you see good and bad.

Look at Bill Cosby.

BILL COSBY 

For decades Cosby was exalted for his sense of humour, his wise comments about growing up, his entertaining presence, his strong options about black men not taking responsibility for their behaviour, especially with regard to women and children.

Now he is defiled–the  street evidence seems overwhelming, His first trial has is being set.

Yet how can we ignore all the complaints and accusations. We can’t. Many women have said he took advantage of them in horrendous ways.

How does he square this with his admonitions to young men to take responsibility for their actions?

How can this be the same man?

JIAN GHOMESHI

Few Americans will know him but praised for years, Jian Ghomeshi, a Canadian network radio host has lost his reputation and has a promising career in shreds because of similar accusations by women that are being made about Cosby.

He was a good radio host but a bad person?

Cosby was a great entertainer but an abuser of women?

Legally not proven in either case but the public has made up its mind.

We all “know” that people most people are neither perfectly good or bad.

Do we “know” that for a fact? Most people –we feel–are good; some are simply bad, but most of us are a mixture.

Many say that everyone has a skeleton in his closet. Some of that is completely understandable, even if true.  And probably most of those things are not terribly embarassing.

We do things in our youth that, if they were known later, might come back to haunt us.

There was a murder verdict in a Toronto courtroom recently. Two men planned for a year to steal a truck and kill the owner. They did it. Shot him, put him in an industrial machine and burned his and buried his bones. One of the xxxholes was a very rich son of a man (whom is he also accused of murdering). All this idiot had to do was buy a truck (he HAS an airplane) but he did this. Why?

I have no sympathy for this guy.

He has 25 years before they’ll consider parole. His drug seller friend is a moron. He got 25 in the slammer too.

I can think of others things they might have done to these guys as punishment. None of them legal.

Why do rich people shoplift?

I know the psychological explanations that are applied. Are they valid?

THE GOOD AND THE BAD.

I saw a movie called A Good Lie.

A lie for a good reason. OK,  that’s possible too. Parents know about that.

We do things in our lives that seem contradictory to what we believe, or at least, what we profess.

Often we have no idea why we do them.

Do men take sexual advantage of women because they feel entitled?

College rape and bad behaviour seems rampant. Alarmingly, some women at some schools sing the same stupid songs about rape during frosh week. What the hell is the matter with them?

 Who are we? Why do we do what we do?

Our job on earth is to find out who we are and be our best selves.

Often, we do things out of peer pressure  or the desire to be part of the group.

Often we have no idea why we do them.

Here at Self-Knowledge College  we DO examine our lives.

And so this week we begin our series on SELF.

Next, Do we Find Ourselves or Create it?

I hope you enjoy the series and discover something new about yourself.

daleyfrank0@gmail.com

And, please, comment on anything you see pro and con and share with others if  you like the articles. (Even if you don’t.)

I’m with you in this.

Frank

P.S. If you are not a subscriber to Self-Knowledge College, please join me.
You will get a lot of information, much of it free, about you.
You can begin by downloading my book FOUR QUESTIONS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
It’s free too and the download is immediate.
You are important.
Maybe it’s time you got to know yourself.
Forget maybe, it IS time.
I’ll be with you.
Frank