Hypocrisy and its antidote
With so much hypocrisy in the world, we might begin to ask how we fail to see it in ourselves.
How do we not see that the very thing we accuse the other of, we do ourselves?
Perhaps a place to start is to set a personal standard that before we criticise something I have been good at most of my life, we might look inward. We might ask questions such as;
Why does this upset me so?
What about this issue might I actually (or we as an enterprise, institution or nation) be doing?
How has my action in any way contributed to this?
We might seek the feedback of people we trust who are brave enough to tell us the truth.
And then, if we have the courage, we might confess to our hypocrisy.
This particular act of courage is rare, particularly in the public domain.
I yearn for it from our leaders in industry, from our elected representatives.
The capacity and integrity to say. I did this. I was wrong. And to do so with words spoken sincerely.
We might help to cultivate this field by extending forgiveness to those who do this, giving them a chance to show they are truly remorseful.
Our ability to be vicious towards those who are sincerely attempting to change for good is a reflection of our own self-directed viciousness.
A kinder world starts with self-compassion, self-reflection, and the courage to face our own hypocrisy.
February 22nd 2020
Photo taken February 22nd, 2020
