53. On: Reality and Self  Deception

Dearly Beloved,

The philosopher, Jason Stanley, wrote a book* on ideology, about the “why” and the “how” of the way we believe the world to be, including how we mislead ourselves and one another. 

Perhaps his most biting comments are a description of the beliefs of a slave--owning family. He describes a family, who benefit from the work of their slaves, but can only justify their misuse by professing that the slaves are the type of people who can only survive by being enslaved, controlled and disciplined for their own good as well as that of the slave--owning family. Here self-interest dominates the reality of the family's ideological position.

One of the most striking pieces of evidence that he presents is the lecture given by Sojourner Truth to the 1851 Woman's convention in Akron, Ohio, who contrasts an ideology about women held by many, with the reality of her life:

“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

One of the most potent points that Jason Stanley makes is that ideologies of the type which justified slavery, and indeed many other modes of actions and beliefs in our lives, are strangely resistant to modification regardless how they may deviate from reality and the evidence of everyday life. We manage to ignore reality. Such ideologies are part of our identity so to change them is to change the way we see ourselves. We saw a similar resistant ideology applied to our attitudes to vaccination during the recent pandemic.

Doubtless evolutionary biologists would also point to the fact that ideologies we hold are also shaped by innate biological tendencies. Human beings seem to have a need to dominate others, or at least to set up dominance hierarchies in the societies in which they live. That is quite evident in the way those needs have modified the ideologies associated with slavery which ignore its reality.

There are ideological aspects to Christianity too and one of the most fascinating is that one of the strangest and most scandalous is the part of the Great Commandment which instructs us to love or neighbours as ourselves. That is manifest in the example of Christ, the God who empties himself and allows himself to be humiliated and crucified. That is the ultimate example to us of humility. As the slave owners families show, it is still a mental battle for us to accept Christ's teaching and example, after all, Christian families enslaved their fellows.

Peace and Freedom,

Paul.


Photo: Paul Munton.

Complex relationships: a robber fly hangs from grass seeds with its prey whilst a ladybird looks on. The orange speck on the robber's abdomen is a parasite.



*Stanley, Jason 2015 How Propaganda Works, Princetown Univeristy Press, Woodstock OX20 1TR. 352pp.



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