Many
people like to circle the truth so they don't have to identify it and
then be forced to take a stand on anything,
in any direction.
I
just recently spent quite a bit of my online time talking to someone
who talks the ambiguous, “there is no right or wrong” jargon
circle. This person also was trying to “help” ME
learn to understand where my
problem thinking was coming from and was very sure that I simply did
not understand these things as well as s/he.
I
made several attempts to get a direct
yes or no response to several very clear concrete questions like,
“since you tell me that there is no right or wrong could you tell
me in concrete terms then; if I were to stab you in the chest, would
that be wrong? Yes or no?
I
got no direct answer,
(repeated many times after various questions along the same line) and
instead, got a response “explaining” MY
actions and thinking (as the potential stabber) to me,
including that to stab this person in the chest would seem “right”
to me, if I were to do that. When I said,
I did not ask you to explain my thoughts and motivations to me as I
know
what they are; and your answer is evasive. I asked you if my stabbing
you in the chest would be perceived by
you as
wrong? What is your judgement on that?
Response:
“I don't like to
judge.”
(judge
what? Pretty much anything
as this style of thinking is the “fence sitter” type. You can be
much more popular if
you don't have any
opinion on anything, or if it changes depending upon to whom you are
talking at the time.)
So
I asked more specifically, Do you not have a problem with being
murdered?
Response
I got to that? I had a hard time understanding this at
first too.
(It's
a comprehension problem I
am having you see and not
the other person's who is teaching ME
“how to think.” (does this sound familiar?)
The
other: “But I just
stayed on message and
I finally got it and I'm sure that YOU
can too.”
And
what is “the message?” Why... it is this according to this
person who is trying to teach me how to think: There are no
answers to anything.
So
I asked: So is
that YOUR
answer? That there are
no answers?
The
person teaching me
how to think
LOL'd me saying, it sounds
like it doesn't make sense I know, but that is because you
don't understand it yet.
Actually
what it SOUNDS like
to me is what I believe it actually IS,
which is a form of self hypnosis taught
to this individual by someone else, whom the person perceives as a
great guru, or leader, or authority figure, which they then
internalize as the non-answer, answer.
If they stay “on message” (the razor's edge
of sanity/insanity) they don't ever
have to resolve anything
or take a stand on anything, and they can sit right THERE,
where there is “no right or wrong.” The edge on which they are
precariously and defensively balanced is meaningless
because it it a point of potential
only.
I
have not yet asked this
one which “training” course, if any, preceded a psych diagnosis
but I would not be at all “shocked” to discover it may well be
the same one that was “the best investment ever made” by my own
“trainer.” On the other hand this may just
be a “graduate” of dysfunctional family or dysfunctional
workplace 101. in any case, I know that logic
and specific questions won't penetrate the “message” as the
“message” is being used to keep critical thought and any negative
emotions AWAY from
the “converted” one who is now spreading “the message”
everywhere... while always
smiling, no doubt.
Many
decades ago I asked a family member to give me an answer to a
question that required someone to say something very specific about
something being done identifying it as either
right or wrong.
The
answer I got then was: “I don't like to judge.”
So I stated:
None of us can get through a single day
of our lives without making judgements. So how about you tell me
what you use as your
basis of judgement and maybe I can use that too then?
Response:
NO response at all.
You see we who live in the dysfunctional tradition “don't like to
judge” (as an abstraction, in absolute terms, connected to nothing
specific) because to DO
so will surely make us an unpopular member of the group and for SOME
of us, and to varying degrees, it can even become quite dangerous
to express such an unpopular viewpoint.
The
examples in the dialogue above are showing how abstract ideas, in
absolute terms, “work” by circling back
on themselves and appearing to “explain” something which is
actually being evaded
completely and that is the PURPOSE
of the ambiguous abstractions in absolute terms. I repeat: this is a
form of hypnotic induction. These
kinds of statements are thought stoppers which create a hypnotic
state of meaninglessness. Meaninglessness makes some people FEEL
better about almost ANYTHING
no matter how horrifying it may actually be. The person inside
that magic circle of metaphysics can feel safe, protected1,
and psycho-spiritually ABOVE
all of those who simply don't understand it ...like s/he is sure
that s/he does. What it does not
do is identify, or solve, real
problems in concrete reality and in fact, often makes things even
WORSE than they were
before.
The
DSM is written in the same
way. So that when you sit in a psychiatrist’s office and say, “I
have been set up for an attack by someone”
or “I have been harmed
by others” they can
only hear you in
terms of their own
programming. Those things have been written in their book as
“symptoms” of “mental illness” and once again, as ambiguous
abstractions in absolute terms. Too bad real life “out here in the
world of reality” can't be defined so easily, quickly or so
definitely, isn't it? Too bad for those labelled as mental cases in
the space of ten to fifteen, cost effective minutes anyway. The rest
of you know it can't
happen to you as you're “not sick.”
(Oh...be
careful now...don't say that
to one of them as that TOO
is a symptom proving that you are
sick....)
A
variety of dysfunctional groups, including those often defined as
cults or cult-like, use this dark, obfuscating kind of NLP
programming to gain power and control over over those who often
become devoted followers, never going “off message.”
So
what is the “message”? Why, that the answer to understanding
everything is that
there is no answer to anything and
that ALL answers are
just an “illusions.”
I
asked my new self appointed guru, Is
that your final answer? Then
I self corrected and this seemed to satisfy the guru when I said, “Oh
I'm sorry...it can't be can it? ...since you have
no answers and an answer is impossible, as it is just an illusion.”
Tautological
(circular) arguments can SEEM
to be really “intellectual” and many of those using
them present themselves in just that way. The main function of them
though is that of self validation while invalidating any, and all,
critical thinking about the argument itself,
and avoiding any connection to specific context, in concrete reality.
It is a sort of permanent head trip which has a very powerful
hypnotic effect on those using them, and they are frequently used by
those who hold some kind of concrete power over others, especially if
they have some brand of “authority” to justify
the control of those who dare to disagree with
those who are using them.
When
there is “no right or wrong” there are no limits placed
on what the “true believer” can say, or do, while still managing
to justify it to him/herself and maintaining a belief in a “superior”
understanding and/or worth. There is another name for this also: it's
called A Giant Load of Crap.
You
see, it really doesn't mater how many WAYS
you try to penetrate the circular anti-logic in this, or for how LONG
you try. You won't be able to do so. You won't be able to do so
BECAUSE resisting
logical and critical thought is the POINT
of the circular argument and the reason for maintaining it. It is an
infinite loop that is self perpetuating, which you can't see, until
or unless you get OUTSIDE
of it, and there is a rule within
it claiming there is nothing outside of it.
If
you are someone, trying to deal with
someone, who thinks like this, from a relatively mild form of it all
the way to full blown psychopath, you will likely get to the point
where you will just give up TRYING
to talk to the irrational Circle Talker. The CT will then perceive
that as a “win” and feel really good about him/herself which will
help to reaffirm his or her “commitment”2
to the guru and/or the guru's system. Again, this is built right into
the structure of the tautology.
The
circle talker does not really KNOW (usually) that s/he is talking
around an infinite loop which is a form of hypnosis and which is self
perpetuating. I don't think there is any
state of mind more difficult to penetrate than this one. I have had
some practise trying to do so. Most often, the entranced one seems
quite normal to others, is not in any distress at all that most
people can see, and is functioning all right as long as the trance is
supported and protected. The only thing anyone else can really do is
to expose the structure ITSELF
from start to finish. Then MAYBE
if the Circle Talker ever gets to the point where that metaphysical
picket fence s/he is balanced on starts to get really painful s/h e
will want to make a
move to get OFF it, or get out of the “game,” get outside the
“loop,” and learn to get comfortable with real
critical thinking, with being very unpopular because
of it with some, and come to actually prefer
it to the illusions of safety and security gained by hiding in
ambiguous abstractions in absolute terms. That stance may FEEL
pretty good in the short term, much like any “fix,” but what it
hides from the user of it is the long term disastrous effects which
are catching up to the user, and to all of us, because of It.
It is past the due time for “It” to get a psycho-spiritual boot
in the ass.
1Especially
if they can get that reinforced by others like them who receive
themselves as “in the know” and part of a special group.
2You
should pardon the pun...it's those damned “words” and their
multiple meanings you see.
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