Sunday, September 18, 2011

insanity/white lies/hope.




It's interesting. Whenever man is in nature he always seems to stand out in it. There is both a seperation from man and the rest of nature and man also seems to be a higher form of nature.



Insanity. The first thing that needs to be done is the distinction between crazy and insane. I actually think I blogged about this before, but I'll repeat it again here. Crazy = Unusual. Insane = Mentally Ill/ Unstable. I don't really know what to say about this topic because I haven't known very many people who suffer from insanity. I imagine that those who have an extreme case of mental illness, no one can really reach them an connect with them. It must be an excruciating challenge to live with that level of mental illness or live with someone with that level of mental illness. All you can really do is support that person in whatever way you can.

There are those who are trying to cope or manage their mental insanity. I think the greatest struggle for these individuals wouldn't be that actual management -after a while it would become habit. It would be living with the stereotypes associated with that condition. No one wants someone to see them as something they are not. They would probably try to hide or down play their condition out of fear of being judged and labelled by others. Then they would not only struggle with their illness and overcoming it, but also trying to hide the fact that it is an issue in their lives they have to work through. Then they won't be able to get the support from others that they really need because no one or few people would know about it.

I guess if anything can be said about insanity and the people who suffer by it, it is that we should be as supportive and understanding as we can be.

White Lies. Are they good or are they bad and how so? Some people say All lies are bad. But if you had to choose between lying and letting someone be murdered -lying would be ok in that context. So in some contexts white lies are ok. In fact that's why they are typically distinguished from lies in the first place. But there is a danger that excessive white lying can be actual lying and can create a habit of wrongful behavior if people keep writing things off continuously as "just a little white lie". Its like donuts. The "just this one time" concept only works if it is just that one time or is done seldomly. Too much and you become Homer Simpson.

I'd say to monitor whether or not a white lie in a specific situation is good, you have to remove yourself from the situation and see it from All perspectives -not just your own.

Ask yourself, "How will this effect me? If the white lie effects me in a positive way, is That te reason I want to do it? If that is the reason, it seems selfish of me not to share the Truth just for the sake f myself without thinking about the person I am lying to."

If that's not the case ask yourself, "How will this effect the person I am giving that white lie to? Am I just sparing their feelings now for an inevitable pain they will have later out of the sake of my own convenience? Or am I genuinely trying to simplify a situation or maybe even aid that person by not hurting their feelings or trying to boost their confidence?"

For instance, "You'll totally win that game today!" -Even though you onestly think that the person won't. You still want them to feel good about themselves and you still support them. If you tell them you honestly don't think they will succeed then they will doubt themselves and stand a greater chance of actually failing. You're trying to give them the best chance they have at defying your genuine assumptions about their capabilities because you want to support them and your friendship with them means more to you than your doubts. A white lie is like a $10 bill you pay to cover expenses you are willing to pay that price for.  But it's just $10. You don't have that many $10 white lie bills in your pocket and they can't cover something greater than you can afford.

You should also consider asking yourself, "How would a 3rd party feel about this white lie? Would they be on my side or tell me I'm doing wrong?" The ultimate goal is to do right by your friends and do right by yourself.

Hope. I think i may have blogged about this at some point as well. Let me check... Holy crap I haven't talked about this before!!! Wait, let me check again... Well crap. I couldn't find it. It's like misplacing car keys, then finding out you didn't have any car keys to misplace. Whatever, I'll talk about it now...

There are 2 kinds of hope. There's the wishy-washy, touchy- feely, Don't worry every thing's gonna be just fine! -kind of hope. Then there's Radical Hope.

When Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to people about a future of equality, he wasn't speaking of a fact that could be verified in that moment. He was Hoping that his Hope would become fact one day. But it wasn't just empty hope that had no concreteness to it. It wasn't an empty future promise. It was Truth mixed with Faith on some level. He didn't know for a fact How it would happen or When it would happen, but he knew it Would happen because he had Faith and Conviction and Determination that it would. He was going to make it happen. So he knew that it was within his power to make his Hope a Truth, which made it a Truth and a Fact to him. And at the time, that's all he could do. He had to do what was needed, and what was needed was Hope. He was Hope and Faith and he inspired others to believe as he did so that even when he was killed, the Hope and the Faith he had instilled in others was only strengthened because they carried it within them and carried it on for him on his behalf.


People write hope off as if it isn't as solid and reliable as fact ad things that are known today. But if the hope is as strong as fact to the person who has it in them, then it is the same as the Truth of Tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. <3

    " There is both a seperation from man and the rest of nature and man ALSO SEEMS TO BE A HIGHER FORM OF NATURE."

    Wisdom, dear Jessica...wisdom indeed...

    I would guess that hiding insanity is the best way to make it grow stronger.

    The observation that I made regarding insanity is that it seems to happen as a result of some kind of immoral/hypocritical lifestyle. Or do you know of any cases of good people going bonkers? And even in the case of "not-evil" people, often times it is a powerful hypocrisy within them that drives them bonkers. If someone lives a way that is against what they feel inside, it can often lead to insanity.

    I agree that one should lie to save a life...but I wouldn't categorize that as a white lie...for me, a white lie is always a very minor "untruth"... =)

    LOL...white lies are like donuts...too many of them and you end up like Homer Simpson...I may steal that...

    Your comparisons of a white lie to money, to "smooth things over" bring to mind the purpose of a bribe...interesting...bribes and white lies...hmmm....

    I brought up white lies Sunday as part of my argument that all sins are equal in the spiritual world, though on the earthly world there may be different levels of consequences.

    As for your words on Hope...dang girl...genius. That's EXACTLY what I spoke about. The "Hope" that is not wishy washy, but a Hope that is sure.

    How the heck did you figure this more sure definition of Hope out? O.o

    "But if the hope is as strong as fact to the person who has it in them, then it is the same as the Truth of Tomorrow."

    ...

    I may have to talk to you BEFORE I write these presentations out! Amazing...

    Cuz yeah, this is exactly what I said but I daresay this is written better.

    I, of course, spoke of the "Hope that is Heaven", which, if we focus on that, will change all of our life's priorities. The temporary things that bother us so much on earth won't bother us so much if we're looking forward to eternal things.

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  2. Radical Hope was a concept I learned from a book called Radical Hope. A guy used the CrowNation of Native Americans as an example. It as interesting. The message was clear, but the Indian culture was a little harder to understand. You can borrow it if you want, after I get my other book back :)

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