All of us have a reluctance to see our problems as the result of our own actions. The more serious the issue, the more creative we become in our explanations.
To the point of absurdity at times. Years ago, a radio student of mine had a unique twist on the age-old excuse. When I asked him why he handed his assignment in late, he said with all sincerity, “My dog ate my contact lenses.”
Laughable and ridiculous obviously. But illustrative of what has become the typical attitude. “Hell is the other people,” is how Sartre characterized it, and this lack of awareness is a serious problem in our world today. It’s led to obese women suing their mothers as being responsible for their fatness.
Or one country so convinced the problem is out there that they drop bombs on others or erect walls to keep the others out. But seeing our own problems as caused by another makes us lose contact with our own inner lives. Meaning we alienate ourselves from wisdom and knowledge.
Analytical Trilogy and the Science of the Human Interior, today on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head.