Our Ability to Deceive Ourselves

Of all the human perversities, the ability to deceive ourselves is possibly the most perverse and definitively the most interesting to observe (albeit in a perverse way). We can convince ourselves of almost anything; taking a lie, and repeating it to ourselves enough times that we are convinced it is true. More than any other place, this ability shines when it comes to justifying our own actions.

All too often, we see clearly the slightest error of another, while being blind to our own. Not only blind to our errors; but, quite often we are unable to even accept the idea that we could possibly be wrong.

This clarity of vision, into the error of another, is probably the most clear when we see in that other person an action or attitude that we don’t like in ourselves. We may become infuriated with them for their obviously wrong behavior; meanwhile declaring in a loud voice how we are innocent of that same action. It would almost be comical if it were not so sad.

Jesus said:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ⁴ Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? ⁵ Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Matthew 7:3-5; Luke 6:41-42

Being a Christian doesn’t automatically relieve us of this ability at self-deception; in fact, I’ve seen many a Christian who could teach unbelievers how to practice the fine art. We can even take it a step farther than them, by convincing ourselves that things which God has written in the Bible apply to others, but don’t apply to us.

One of the ways we do this is by saying that we live in a different culture, or a different time frame; so, the commandments of the Bible don’t apply to us. Another is to say that “grace” means that we don’t have to obey God (or at least his commandments), because they are in the Old Testament, and we are believers of the New Testament. Funny, I always that that both parts were considered part of our Bible.

When the world sees us acting this way, they call it hypocrisy. You know something? They are right. It is always hypocritical to try and hold others to a different standard than what we are willing to live ourselves.

Actually, the scariest aspect of this ability to deceive ourselves is when we convince ourselves that what we want is what God wants. We don’t really say it that way, of course; it’s usually phrased as, “God told me…” which gives it as much power as if it had come down with Moses from Mount Sinai. When God has told us to do something, we can break every commandment that exists to do it; after all, God said so.

That’s a very Jesuitical argument; that the ends (what we claim God told us to do) justifies the means (what we want to do). Nowhere in scripture do we see an example of this; however we see lots of them in the church. God never violates His Word or His commandments to have His will done.

So, how do we avoid deceiving ourselves? By submitting to God, to His Word, and to godly people who can tell us when we are wrong. It doesn’t do any good to only submit ourselves to godly friends, because all too often they will put friendship above godly correction. No, we need people who will tell us the truth, especially when that truth is that we are not doing as God would have us do. Then, when we receive that advice, we need to accept and submit to it.

Then, and only then, can we avoid deceiving ourselves.

What Type of College Education is This?

Recently, I’ve been doing some freelance writing for some online companies. This has grown out of the need for us to re-evaluate the way we are earning money, since my wife’s teaching contract didn’t get renewed.

So far, the freelancing I’ve been doing has been writing informative copy for business web sites. I work, as one of many writers, through an online company which seeks out and receives orders from clients, then posts them for the writers to complete. Writers who work with the company have the option of selecting and writing on any of the posted jobs that they are qualified for. All in all, it’s a pretty good system, and the little bit of writing that I have done for them has been very profitable.

I say “little bit of writing” because there hasn’t been enough work to really make much of a difference in our overall income. So, I got hunting around on the Internet for other similar companies to write for. All of them have an application process, and expect the writer to write something for evaluation.

Just the other day, I completed this process for a company that I had never heard of before. Their online application process was a little more complicated than others I had tried, but as they said that it was “educational writing” I wasn’t overly surprised.

Well, lo and behold they approved me as one of their writers. At first, I thought it would be much more interesting writing than the things that I had written for companies web sites. But once I looked at it, I ran head on into a real ethical dilemma (at least for a whole 30 seconds).

Every writing job I was able to find on this web site was posted by a student trying to get someone to write their homework assignments, term papers, essays, and even theses for them. That wasn’t exactly what I had expected to find; I had been expecting to see jobs posted by the professors and institutions, needing work written for them.

How can these people think that they are doing the right thing, to have someone else do their homework, so that they can get their degree? What kind of disasters are they going to be in the workplace?

Could you imagine going to a doctor who had paid others to write his term papers in college? He might not know the difference between a kidney and a liver. Or, how about hiring a lawyer to represent you who had depended upon the writing ability of others to get him through school? If he wrote a letter to a company, complaining about their treatment of their client (you) he’d probably get laughed at, instead of making the company feel threatened enough to take action on your behalf.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that someone who pays another to do their studying, research and writing deserves to receive a college degree. As a college professor, I would be insulted to have one of my students turn something like that in. If I could prove they did it, I’d have them booted out of school. If they don’t want to think, they shouldn’t be in college anyway.

There’s something deeper there than just academic education, it’s called integrity. Anyone who is that dishonest in their schooling is likely to be just as dishonest in the workplace. They’ll be the one who clocks out early, or steals something from the office, or charges the company for extra expenses on a trip. They’re also the ones who will refuse to accept the responsibility that is part and parcel of their job.

As a former employer (that’s read “boss” for those who aren’t sure), I see much of the hiring process as looking for the person who has the right character to be a responsible worker. Yes, technical ability is important, but it’s really not as important as character. There are a lot of people out there who have technical ability in whatever field. But, there are only a few who will go that extra mile for their employer.

When it comes down to it, the only thing a company has, that can make it stand out, is its employees. Excellent employees make for excellent companies; while mediocre employees can only produce a mediocre company. Anyone who expects others to do their work for them isn’t an asset to the company, but a liability. Good managers get rid of them quickly.

So, are these students helping themselves out, or are they setting themselves up for failure? To me, I’d have to say the latter; they might succeed for the moment, but in the larger picture, they will never make the grade.

What the 2010 Elections Really Mean

Whether you are conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, or just and independent thinker, the 2010 “mid-term” federal elections have been a show that almost everybody has been watching. Every special interest group in the country has had their say about these elections, and every shading of political leaning has made their stand known.

For those who have a liberal political outlook, these elections have been a disaster; while for the conservatives amongst us, it has been seen as a great victory. However, it seems that everyone, right, left, and middle have been ignoring the true constitutional issue of these elections.

We live in a country that is made up of divergent viewpoints, numerous ethnic groups, and many special interests. The right to hold and express one’s personal opinion in religion, politics, your neighbor’s crabgrass and the price of eggs is guaranteed by the first Amendment to the Constitution. Somehow, in all this diversity, our government has to find a way to serve the needs of every citizen.

A key term in defining the political system that was created by the founders of this country is “checks and balances.” The three branches of government were created with this concept in mind. The congress (our parliament) writes the laws, the executive branch enforces the laws, and the judicial branch judges the laws and those who break them.

The reason that these checks and balances exist is to ensure fairness and justice for the greatest possible number of people. If one group, political party, or ideology takes control, they tilt everything in their direction. However, by allowing a variety of political viewpoints to participate together in the process of governing our nation, we force the extremists to work for moderation, compromise and a system that equally represents the viewpoints of all the people.

For the last two years, ever since the 2008 presidential elections, the Democrats, and most especially the more liberal democrats have held tight control of two branches of our government, those of the congress and the executive branch. President Obama has stated he “desired to work together with Republicans.” In practice, his way of working together with people has been to publicly ridicule anyone who held or expressed a viewpoint different than his own.

Nobody can say that President Obama has been idle in his time in office. During his two years, he has probably initiated more social changes, with farther reaching impact than any other president since Lincoln. Yes, he has been busy. But, one might ask, how is it that he has been able to accomplish so much in those two years? Simple; it is because he has been backed by a congress controlled by democrats.

What these elections have done is to restore checks and balances to our government. Will President Obama be able to accomplish as much in the next two years as he has in the last? That depends upon whether he changes his strategy, or just blames the Republicans for his failures. He will now have to learn how to work with people, how to make compromises, and how to take into account the needs and desires of people who don’t share his political beliefs.

If he doesn’t learn to do this, the federal government will be at a standstill for the next two years. The good news is that Mr. Liberal himself won’t be able to continue to remake the United States of America into his image. The bad news is that the needs of the country will not be addressed.

Mr. President, as always, we are watching to see your reaction.