October 29, 2005
Pointing
Once upon a time past, we had for a while the “Evil Empire.” More recently, it’s been the “Axis of Evil.” It seemed in each of these times only too easy to forget that when pointing, there are always three fingers pointing back at the pointer.
Perhaps all this may be somewhat better understood in Scott Peck’s “People of the Lie: the Hope for Healing Human Evil,” p 129. He says of evil that in addition to the abrogation of responsibility that characterizes all personality disorders, evil would specifically be distinguished by:
a) consistent destructive, scapegoating behavior, which may often be quite subtle…
b) excessive, albeit usually covert, intolerance to criticism and other forms of narcissistic injury…
c) pronounced concern with a public image and a self-image of respectability, contributing to a stability of life-style but also to pretentiousness and denial of hateful feelings or vengeful motives…
and d) intellectual deviousness, with an increased likelihood of a mild schizophrenic-like disturbance of thinking at times of stress.
I suppose it’s only coincidental if any of this strikes us as familiar. Nevertheless, we might use more care, lest we get the point.
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