The world runs away from itself

 

I suppose if you live in Mayberry and never read the newspapers, people may seem good and the world may seem to hum along to a friendly, hopeful, wonderful or cosmic tune. But observant people in the real world will see that humanity leans toward gar­bage, is inclined to be hateful, toxic, or at least childish in the worst ways. And people give the appearance of knowing what they are doing, even the worst among us, because they make decisions, speak in full sentences, are not blatantly psychotic. But as I’ve demonstrated in many of these blog posts, people are likely to be norma­tively delusional, do not know who they are, do not know why they do what they do.

The question now is why is there so much unhappiness? That is the basic question, because unhappiness leads to projection and abuse, which lead to the next gener­ation’s unhappiness.

I even see it in some psychotherapists. Miserable human beings with passive-aggres­siveness, superioristic characters and other personality disorders, criminal histories. And of course there are the priests, politicians, detached fathers, solipsistic mothers, materialistic and drugged movie stars, money-hungry start-up entrepreneurs, violence- and abuse-obsessed musicians.

Why so much unhappiness? Mostly, because of human generations. Our forefathers began a chain of psychological legacies, which began with their forefathers. They poisoned their children who became unhappy and frustrated adults, projecting the pain of their unmet needs into the next generation. The main psychological theme is that we resist facing our pain, which leads us to continue to suffer from it or escape from it, which includes sending it outward to others. If we could face our injuries, we would deal with them within our selves.

The best people I know are not just in therapy; they are the ones who know how to do therapy. It’s not just talking or being unwilling to challenge their defenses. It’s a willing­ness to accept that their parents did not do an adequate job, but realizing that they themselves have to clean up the messes because they are not children anymore. They have to name their agony and have trust to give it to their therapist. Because part of them is still the child who needs help.

I think most anybody could do that. Which I think sounds beautifully naïve because the majority of the world, time immemorial, doesn’t do that. They run away from themselves. Yet I think it could almost be a simple choice: to not run away. To realize they are living their rational­iza­tions and other defenses. To realize there’s “something wrong with that picture” – being unhappy and making their children lose their light.

To not run away. Should that be so hard to do?

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A friend informed me that he has relatives on his wife’s side who are Trump fans and vaccine doubters. My brief response gives an example of the banal escapism, the running away, of Republican delusions:

I differentiate between psychotics who come by their delusions honestly (a “heartbreaking” childhood with crazymaking parents), and relatively normal people whose delusions are based on anger and emotional immaturity (the Trumpers). Both types have escaped from painful reality, but the latter are not so far gone that they couldn’t see through their error. (The idea that a schizophrenic had a heartbreaking childhood comes from John Modrow’s book, How To Become a Schizophrenic).