(This is Part 14 of a series. Go back to Part 13.)
6. Self-righteousness (the sixth source)
Of all the ways that the shadow enters the human world,
self-righteousness is perhaps the most difficult one to deal with, because it's nearly invisible to the person it afflicts.
We all have a strong tendency to think that we're right; this tendency is so ubiquitous that it must be built-in by nature. Indeed, it even has a positive side: Recall Einstein laboring for years in obscurity because he thought he was on to something, because he thought he was right about something and kept at it. That's extremely laudable.
So what's the deal with self-righteousness then? What's different about it? Why is it so pernicious in human life?
Self-righteousness leads to suffering in ourselves and others because it adds another dimension to this human tendency to think that we're right—an emotional rigidity about it all, in other words, an insistence on being right.
The farther into self-righteousness a person goes, the more it gets coupled with egomania and grandiosity. It becomes simply impossible that one could be wrong.
Taken to its logical conclusion, this can take on a certain messianic quality. Hitler, for instance, believed that he was the "savior" of his country and "the physician" of his people. He felt that he was destined by God to establish the Third Reich.
Since Hitler felt that he had been singled out by history, he also felt that he was thereby above the law. In speech after speech, Hitler with unshakeable conviction extolled the "superman" who had the "moral strength" to carry out violence against the "weak". Those who shirked such violence were "morally weak" themselves, according to Hitler, and deserved to be crushed.
(Just in passing: Notice how, in the name of "morality", morality has been turned on its head!)
No deviance was allowed from this point of view. Hitler pounded again and again on the theme that he knew with unshakeable conviction what was best for Germany and the volk (the people) and that it was vital to expend all energies on crushing the fatherland's "enemies".
Furthermore, because of the vital task at hand, everyone had to fall in line with der fuhrer (the leader) and give "blind obedience" in thought and deed to his orders.
Dissenters were verbally attacked or intimidated. Later on, as Hitler gained in power, dissenters were attacked, intimidated, imprisoned or killed.
Such traits are commonplace, of course, among tyrants and repressive regimes throughout history. I have focused upon Hitler in my examples because to many people he is the embodiment of evil. If we're going to deal with evil, we have to deal with Hitler.
Moreover, in Hitler we see these qualities carried to their extremes, which makes it easier to see the logical consequences of them. Finally, by taking them to extremes Hitler makes these qualities much more easy to recognise—not just in him, but in ourselves.
Because Hitler only represents an extreme example of qualities that we all share to seme extent. As someone once said, we all have "Mother Teresa and Hitler"—both—inside us.
It is easy enough, usually, to recognise the "positive" qualities in ourselves—the times when we're generous, kind, compassionate. It's a far greater challenge to recognise within ourselves those qualities that tend to create suffering for ourselves and others.
"Know yourself", Socrates said. This involves nothing less than beginning to see our own mind for what it is.
In the moment when we begin to see those places within ourselves where we too are self-righteous, in that very recognition the light of consciousness begins to flicker on, or rather be revealed, within us. And we begin at last to lay down the heavy burden of the self-concept.
(This is the end of Part 14. Go to Part 15.)
—jim sloman, 12.16.05
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