The fallacy of right
PRINT PAGE
The fallacy of right
Right is a mind-full and very righteous assumed position, like a monolith cast in stone that does not budge and staunchly defends its usurped territory, regardless of the cost. Right absolutely needs to be right.
Wrong on the other hand is abject, with its tail between its legs and often waiting for the next opportunity to be right on its own terms, to finally turn the tables and flee the imprisonment of wrong.
What is it about right that makes this stance seemingly so attractive that even wrong aspires to it, rather than tossing the whole paradigm of right and wrong on the scrap heap?
For one, when we are right, we don’t need to feel what is really going on. Right always has the answer, all the answers in fact; right is quick off the mark, leaves no room for pondering, contemplation, no space for going deeper. Right is a sure-fire shortcut to cutting off any internal process or self-awareness and a fail-proof avoidance of what is really going on.
Right is hardness, in defence and on the back foot while wrong is on its hands and knees; right is presumptuous, dominating, triumphant and so sure of itself.
But is it really? Or are its foundations, in truth, shaky, crumbly and without substance?
For example, how does right know it is right? After all, right assumes it is right and states this in no uncertain terms. Right is a bully, deferring to a higher authority if needed and capable of talking the legs off a chair in defence of its position.
Right opens and deepens chasms – between people, in families, between groups and parties. Politicians fall back onto right a lot and the expression ‘doing the right thing by someone’ speaks volumes. Again, an assumed position that muscles in and pretends it can speak on behalf of another when it is one’s own position that is being defended.
How does right know it is right? It doesn’t, it assumes because jumping into the right camp happens faster than lightning, is an alignment to a perceived emergency situation that strongly signals ‘stop, I don’t like where this is going, so here is what is right’.
Right claims superiority whereas wrong is left in the cold and the nether regions of devastation, waiting for its turn to bask in the false light of right.
And have you taken the time to feel what right does to the body? It hardens it, makes the body like a rock that is driven entirely from the mind. Right feels cold and disconnected, it is devoid of brotherhood, imposing itself onto and over others. Right does not have friends, other than those who jump onto the same bandwagon and enjoy the cosiness and complicity of mutual righteousness.
Right is non-communicative, is dismissive; right has no time for others, ‘does not suffer fools gladly’. And who are the fools? Everyone and anyone who does not agree, who does not toe the line. And then, it is ‘my way or the highway’. But not just my way – the right way, the only way. Right is a henchman, cutting off all else and everyone else.
And on the inside? Right is so shaky that this stance of right is the only thing left to hang on to. If this crumbly foundation is let go off, there is nothing, or so it seems. Right is a shipwrecked lost captive to its own mental process, its handy boxes and labels, its rock-hard certainties and beliefs.
What is right really? A way to cloak and hide one’s vulnerability and humanness; right is a pale and distant echo of the fact that we in truth do know.
We know what is true and we know the truth, the one-unified truth that does not buy into separation, one-upmanship or competition of any kind. But this knowing comes from within, from our essence and via the body and with the whole body; it is warm, fiery and beholding and does not ever need to be right, does not ever need to assert its authority if not superiority over another or others.
Filed under
Awareness, Communication, Hardness
