Challenge Illusions

 

 

No one ever said living is easy and I agree. Developmentally, crises happen at each stage. To illustrate, Erik Erickson’s psychosocial model identified eight stages of crisis beginning with the developing a sense of trust or mistrust and then finally the eighth stage of developing a sense of integrity or despair. Aside from the psychological crises, we have physical health issues as well. For those receiving Medicare, physical health issues become exacerbated until death. Nature also provides problems as well. In California, with global warming we have a drought, excessive heat and out of control forest fires darkening the once blue sky. Then there’s flooding in Europe as the many issues of nature are becoming worse, not better. We have lost control of our ability to control nature. Also, do not forget about the man made conflicts that affect our country. Therefore, illusions are invented in our political, economic, social and religious environments making existence more manageable and pleasurable. What would life be like without illusions? This disquisition addresses man’s repressions and illusions.

As a result of all the difficult issues and concerns that impinge upon man during the lifecycle, man, in his mind, creates devotions to his illusions in order to distort reality. An illusion is simply a false-perception within his mind. The purpose for the illusions are essentially subjective wish fulfillments which is a falsification in an attempt to bring back the homeostasis of anxiety or tension originally resulting from the weakness and helplessness beginning at birth. The illusion temporarily results in some pleasure, a sense of satisfaction. In other words it’s a mechanism of safety that “protects” us from the many existing dangers. Sometimes the illusion becomes a delusion which is a belief that cannot be changed by logic or objective reason. We know there are many dangers that confront us and that we require protection. However, we desire pleasure but society says no with its social taboos. The following relates to a few illusions and falsehoods.

More specifically, we experience threatening impulses that effect thinking and action. Then, the psychological mechanism of repression can be activated. Repression is the mechanism that keeps the fear unconscious and not being able to enter consciousness of reality. Repression keeps the irrational, pleasurable impulses in check, in the unconscious, thus protecting the individual from having to deal or experience it consciously. Since its unconscious and out of our awareness, this means that we are typically unaware of those inner dreaded, pleasurable desires that are not socially or legally approved. Looking at the 10 Commandments, some of the irrational desired unacceptable impulses of man include: murder, sexual relations with others, stealing, swearing, and lying.

With repression, we are able to fool ourselves and can easily be fooled by others since those irrational, hostile and aggressive strivings are not part of our awareness. We go into our conscious reality because we can create wonderful story lines and fictions. Repression, the ability to distort becomes activated by fear. The unconscious fear, a threat, can relate to a number of factors. For example, potential loss of significant love , affection or self-esteem, rejection by others, being  abandoned or not part of, being excommunicated from the group for not being loyal or buying into the message, being threatened or bullied, being incarcerated or experiencing financial loss, status or possession. In other words we have many motivational threats that drives us to repress and become part of the consensus.

Linda and I witnessed an example of repression and rationalization with the film “Inherit the Wind.” The story actually occurred in the 1925 in Tennessee. A public school teacher was put on trial for violating a state law. The law prohibited public school teachers from teaching evolution instead of creationism. In the film, the town inhabitants rallied around the words in the Bible regarding creation as the truth. In fact, the judge did not allow science, University professors or even Darwin’s “Evolution of the Species” to be admitted as evidence. That information would have promoted great anxiety, fear about science challenging the idea of God and the words written centuries ago. Scientific information had to be repressed. Initially, in the film, no one dared voice any opposition to the words found in Genesis. Repression of science, Darwin’s theory, logic, thinking or acknowledging information not found in the Bible were cognizant and on display. On a side note, Frederick March, Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly were terrific. Tracy and Kelly were not part of the consensus of the group’s social narcissism. They were, like the little boy in Anderson’s fairytale. They saw that the Emperor was not wearing clothes.

The wonders within the mind has many maneuvers at its disposal for gratifying its desires and passions frowned upon by society. These maneuvers will be addressed subsequently. However, consider this illustration. What does a righteous God fearing Christian do with his unconscious desires and strivings for sex?  He states that sex is dirty, evil and sinful. He voices his stern disapproval against pornography and volunteers to be on a commission to rid this evil travesty from society. In so doing, he gets to view pornography, call it amoral, dirty and fight for its ban and removal. Thus, this individual’s repressed unconscious sexual desire is expressed consciously within the protection of a moralistic sub culture. In other words, his conscious moral indignation is an illusion about himself. The individual is not aware of his hypocrisy. This defense, within the mind, is called reaction formation. Shakespeare was right on in Hamlet: “The Lady Doth Protest Too Much.”

 Repression pertains to significant emotional knowledge which can compromise our sense of identity. We cannot afford to become ostracized or separated from our social group as we traverse life socially, economically, religiously, and politically. We become alienated from others in the process. To compensate, to return to emotional homeostasis from our underlying or unconscious fears, we   intellectually create, in our mind illusions, fictions and fables about our self. These illusions become our inauthentic reality. We can tell ourselves that we are righteous or Christian even when not following the teachings of Christ, peaceful even though we sadistically attack others, make excuses about infidelity as in blaming her, lying, cheating ,following conscience  by employing the mechanisms of denial and rationalization. In other words, repression and rationalizations protects us from the truth about ourselves even with all our contradictions and inconsistencies regarding our behavior. Moreover, our society also perpetuates and reinforces through advertising and other brainwashing, indoctrination strategies the unprecedented greatness or illusions pertaining to our country, its capitalism, its democracy, its healthcare, its way of life etc.

Everyone knows that we have the world’s best democracy. However, our framers or subjective “fathers” created a form of government that was not representative of all the people that lived at the time- a republic. Females and blacks got to vote when? Madison and his WASP’s made sure that a wealthy minority would rule. He was influenced by Adam Smith who didn’t want the majority to take over property and rule. The Texas Republicans believe the same thing with their voting restriction legislation.

Lincoln issued the proclamation and Jim Crow laws followed. State and/or local laws enforced or legalized racial segregation. Today, we have Republican state legislatures and other Republican officials attempting to enact legislation that allows them to overturn a popular vote among other draconian measures to disfranchise people of color and others. We even had the head Republican call the head of the Georgia voting system, Brad Raffensperger to find more votes for him. Democracy for certain white people.

“We” have the best athletes in the world and dominate certain sports like basketball. However, last week, our Olympic NBA basketball team lost to France in a close game.  Yes, we dominated France for the Gold. “We” won 87-82. In 2019 and 2020, the Greek born Giannis Antetokounmpo and in 2021 Nikola Jokic were voted the most valuable players in the NBA.  Jokic was born in Serbia. The all-tournament Tokyo Olympics included Durant, Ricky Rubio of Spain, Patty Mills of Australia, Luka Doncic of Slovenia, and Rudy Gobert of France.

Tom Brady has achieved more Super Bowl wins than any other quarterback. Does that make Brady the best quarterback ever? Is Brady the best NFL player ever? Those discussions and fictions are found in the media and on articles written about players and their rankings. Of course, winning a Super Bowl is impressive. But it’s a team game and it takes players, coaches, and owners etc. to put together a team. Luck, outstanding players and an absence of injury are some of the components for a team on one Sunday to be victorious over another team.

Potato, an acquaintance, said, coming in second place is the first loser. Yes, we are talking about competition. Competitiveness is important for our survival. Love of mother and father and later competition surfaces- called sibling rivalry. The educational system reinforces competition with its grading system, spelling bees, class ranking and the number of years of football dominance. Get good grades so you can attend college. Get good grades and good test scores and go to the “best” university in order to earn more money, power and prestige. Rankings and competition only divides and does not bring anyone together.

It’s important to define best.  Is winning the MVP in basketball, a team game, over one season the definition of the best? Don’t forget that winning the MVP is based on subjective voting and subjective voting only. In MVP voting, one gets 10 points for first-place vote, 7 for a  second-place vote, five for third-place vote, three for a fourth-place vote and one for a fifth place vote.  And the definition or distinction between first and fifth is what? With swimming and track and field, placement is determined by the watch. That is certainly more exact .On that one day, a person can have the fastest time in the world. Does that one day occurrence, make him the best?

I heard that America was the melting pot. We had the immigration act of 1921. That was really an emergency quota act that restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country. By the way, restricting immigrants was something that was perpetuated the Ku Klux Klan. That group stated we should limit people based on religious and ethnic grounds. In 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed immigration act. This act set quotas, inspired in part by American proponents of eugenics and was calculated to privilege desirable immigrants from Northern and Western Europe. The act limited immigrants considered less racially desirable including southern and eastern European Jews. Many born in Asia and Africa were barred from emigrating United States entirely on racial grounds. After Great Britain, Germany had the second-highest allocation of visas granted.

Don’t forget about the internment camps. The first internment camp was located in Southern California  between 1942 - 1945, a total of  10 camps opened, holding approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans for varying periods of time in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Arkansas. How many German or Italian entertainment camps were there?

 Do we have the best military? Our last great military victory was in 1945. Our record in Afghanistan has accomplished?  Certainly, we spend more on military domestically and more than a number of other countries combined. Military suicides are on the rise and finally there’s talk about mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations. Nearly one in four US servicewomen report being sexually assaulted and don’t ask or don’t tell!

To falsely build self-esteem, ponder about “the best.” However, remember that it’s only fiction or illusion generated between ones ears. It’s not about wisdom, it’s not about reality, and it’s not about truth. Its purpose is social group narcissistic propaganda with the intent to separate and/or nationalize. It does very little to resolve or fix emotional insecurity or to follow the early Judeo-Christian teachings regarding killing, stealing and having sex with your neighbor. It’s about the division to perpetuate the socioeconomic, political and current religious structure. Better keep the dollar strong, China in second-place along with a high wall at the southern border etc. Repression of awareness is followed by the acceptance of fiction as a Topeka, Kansas Mayor stated “I thought I was going to beat it” pertaining to his Covid admission.  Yes, repression, rationalization, alienation, and social group nationalism are threats to peace, well-being, and happiness and keep the majority in check by feeding them crumbs at the dinner table.

PS

Aristotle had it right “falsehood is in itself bad and reprehensible, while the truth is a fine and praiseworthy thing.”