It's funny to me how the "counsel of the wicked" can, seemingly, come from places we wouldn't think of as wicked at at, at least not at first glance. Like a friend recommending I seek the companionship of prostitutes as a way to abide within my nearly sexless marriage (I did not), or a sibling or parent triangulating me into an brining up an issue with another family member rather than dealing with their own issues head on (I too often have).
Outright "wicked counsel" seems the easiest to avoid, or to ignore, while the less blatant tends to be the more insidious. But even the outright can hook us in - hook me in - with some seeming element of truth, or - and this is even worse - some seeming benefit for self, or at the very least something that speaks to a deep, even hidden, longing within us - like Tolkien's One Ring whispering to Smeagol, and then Frodo, "My Presciousssss." And hey, I mean, if it's going to make us feel good and no one else is really going to be hurt by it, what's the real issue, right? Unless we recognize that we might be the one being hurt by our own action. Or inaction.
But then moral relativism kicks in, too. The thought, "Well, maybe it isn't right for me, but who am I to judge this person if they want to visit prostitutes as a way to deal with issues in their relationship?" Or if they want to use drugs, or alcohol, or...well, who am I to judge at all? And cultural relativism as well - I think of the move "The Farewell" which starts with the line "Based on a true lie..." It was actually very enlightening to see how a different culture deals with the issue of terminal illness - hiding it from the terminally ill person not out of deceit, but as a way of caring. Is that the "counsel of the wicked?" For the American born and raised granddaughter, it may have been; to the Chinese elders of the family, that was the way things "should" be handled.
And the best lies - told to ourselves or others - they all have a kernel of truth somewhere in them, like that in "The Farewell." Spoiler alert, but without knowing about her lung cancer, the grandmother lived another six years. Maybe, had she been told she only had weeks or months to live then that would have become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Maybe the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" wouldn't ring to loudly if America's "greatness" wasn't somehow first in doubt - at least a little. And there are plenty of ways to point to that - like preying on a culture of scarcity, creating fear over issues with the economy, arousing the "it's us or them" mentality that I, at least, heard and saw in the campaign. Worse, it evokes the counter argument "No! America is already great!" Which maybe it is, on many levels, but me - I'd love to see America made great again along the lines of abolishing The School of the Americas, ending the oppression of the poor and needy for the benefit of the wealthy, ceasing the locking down of our borders and returning to the roots we once codified in Emma Lazarus' sonnet on the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free." If we are truly honest, was it not these tired, poor, huddled masses who ultimately made America, and made it great, in the first place?
But back to the personal - although maybe this is still true for the societal level - I don't think the temptation to follow the "counsel of the wicked" maybe would be so strong - maybe it wouldn't even there at all? - if we didn't have so much of what Jung termed the "Shadow Self" that we had not examined - were not willing to, or were even wholly incapable of, bringing to light. Both the questions of "Why am so inclined to collude with injustice without even thinking?" and "Why am I terrified to speak out against injustice when I see it?" might be answered here if we had the tools, and the courage, to truly examine our own lives. Said Shakespear's Polonius, to his departing son Leartes: "This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Or even more simply, as Socrates is quoted: "Know thyself."
— Zachary
Outright "wicked counsel" seems the easiest to avoid, or to ignore, while the less blatant tends to be the more insidious. But even the outright can hook us in - hook me in - with some seeming element of truth, or - and this is even worse - some seeming benefit for self, or at the very least something that speaks to a deep, even hidden, longing within us - like Tolkien's One Ring whispering to Smeagol, and then Frodo, "My Presciousssss." And hey, I mean, if it's going to make us feel good and no one else is really going to be hurt by it, what's the real issue, right? Unless we recognize that we might be the one being hurt by our own action. Or inaction.
But then moral relativism kicks in, too. The thought, "Well, maybe it isn't right for me, but who am I to judge this person if they want to visit prostitutes as a way to deal with issues in their relationship?" Or if they want to use drugs, or alcohol, or...well, who am I to judge at all? And cultural relativism as well - I think of the move "The Farewell" which starts with the line "Based on a true lie..." It was actually very enlightening to see how a different culture deals with the issue of terminal illness - hiding it from the terminally ill person not out of deceit, but as a way of caring. Is that the "counsel of the wicked?" For the American born and raised granddaughter, it may have been; to the Chinese elders of the family, that was the way things "should" be handled.
And the best lies - told to ourselves or others - they all have a kernel of truth somewhere in them, like that in "The Farewell." Spoiler alert, but without knowing about her lung cancer, the grandmother lived another six years. Maybe, had she been told she only had weeks or months to live then that would have become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Maybe the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" wouldn't ring to loudly if America's "greatness" wasn't somehow first in doubt - at least a little. And there are plenty of ways to point to that - like preying on a culture of scarcity, creating fear over issues with the economy, arousing the "it's us or them" mentality that I, at least, heard and saw in the campaign. Worse, it evokes the counter argument "No! America is already great!" Which maybe it is, on many levels, but me - I'd love to see America made great again along the lines of abolishing The School of the Americas, ending the oppression of the poor and needy for the benefit of the wealthy, ceasing the locking down of our borders and returning to the roots we once codified in Emma Lazarus' sonnet on the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free." If we are truly honest, was it not these tired, poor, huddled masses who ultimately made America, and made it great, in the first place?
But back to the personal - although maybe this is still true for the societal level - I don't think the temptation to follow the "counsel of the wicked" maybe would be so strong - maybe it wouldn't even there at all? - if we didn't have so much of what Jung termed the "Shadow Self" that we had not examined - were not willing to, or were even wholly incapable of, bringing to light. Both the questions of "Why am so inclined to collude with injustice without even thinking?" and "Why am I terrified to speak out against injustice when I see it?" might be answered here if we had the tools, and the courage, to truly examine our own lives. Said Shakespear's Polonius, to his departing son Leartes: "This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Or even more simply, as Socrates is quoted: "Know thyself."
— Zachary
Well, this writing is jam-packed with interesting ideas! Glad you are in this 40Days session with me. I'm going to try to read everyone's "stuff," but probably won't manage it always. (I'm "Macoff")
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