We are all hypocrites. I hear a lot of people say this, but I don’t think that they really know what it means. I first realized that I was a hypocrite when I was 21. I worked with a Drug Awareness group in Florida. The point of the group was to educate people on how to safely do drugs, as to cut down on “overdoses”, but I almost never followed the caution that I was promoting. It all went downhill from there.
Let me walk you through my line of thinking. According to the oldest definitions of the word hypocrisy,
Hypocrisy (n.)
c. 1200, ipocrisie, "the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness," from Old French ypocrisie, from Late Latin hypocrisis "hypocrisy," also "an imitation of a person's speech and gestures," from Attic Greek hypokrisis "acting on the stage; pretense," metaphorically.
When I was a part of the Drug Awareness Group, I preached caution and moderation, but that was just an act, an imitation, a pretending of virtue. I never followed it myself. I didn’t even believe the message I was purporting. I pushed the limits and did so in excess.
Politicians are a perfect example of this. President Obama was highly critical of George Bush’s use of Executive Orders, but is about to reach the same number of orders given.
George W. Bush 291
Barack Obama 234
He pretended, imitated, and acted as if this was a travesty, but in the end, did not hold himself to the same accountability.
Actors do it. They rally against guns then star in movies that promote the use of guns as heroic. Protesters want free speech, until someone disagrees with them. Religious leaders talk of poverty and humbleness until it’s time to buy a house or car.
Every single person is a hypocrite. I’m not saying that you have to be perfect. Purism is a lie, as much as the lies that hypocrites tell themselves. The goal is to remove as much hypocrisy as possible in one’s life. The secret to doing so, is to stop lying to yourself. Are you selfish? Then be selfish. Embrace yourself.
If you embrace yourself and find something you don’t like then, and only then, can you change it. If you continue to justify or rationalize your behavior then you will make change much harder on yourself. Eventually, this cognitive dissonance will lead to conflict.
This conflict can manifest internally or in the real world. A perfect example of it causing conflict in the real world is these 2 groups of people right now, who want to force their ideas onto Society. They both want to take money from you. They both want to make criminals out of innocent people. They both want to expand the empire. They both want to put a man in power to achieve their goals. Yet, they get violent around each other because they don’t see that they are the same. Of course, I’m talking about Bernie and Trump supporters.
I’m not just picking on them. All candidates would continue the Status Quo with only slight changes in the style in which they achieve a larger state. If you say that you stand for freedom and don’t see the hypocrisy of “supporting” government, there isn’t a whole lot more to say.
I will leave you with this food for thought. If you support the State and believe in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence then ruminate on this.
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Over a long enough timeline it become necessary to dissolve political connections to a government because all men are equal, therefore, no one is fit to rule. The power of government comes from the consent of the governed. 47% of eligible voters no longer consent. We are slowly pulling our consent and according to the Constitution and Democracy, We’ll have the right to be left alone and free of government because soon, we’ll out number you.
But, that’s not what you meant when you said you support the Constitution and Democracy is it?
Hypocrite.
