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 %ADDICT LAW LEGAL MORAL JUDGE REJECT CONTROL ETHIC 900517

     Self righteous   legalists  seek  to  use  laws   and
moralisms as tools by which to control other people.  They
feel  a need to be in control,  or to be  associated  with
those  who  are in control.   So they  seek  to  associate
themselves  with  the power to control which is vested  in
respected  laws,  legalities,  moral systems  and  ethical
systems; and with those who are guardians of such systems.

     The more powerful and transcendent is the   authority
behind  the instruments of control,  the more  secure  the
addictive legalist thinks it can make them be.   Those who
think that  they  speak for  God  are  particularly  self-
confident in their pronunciation of statements designed to
control   others.   They think that the Word of God  is  a
string of words with which to control humans, and they are
willing  to use those  words in their effort to achieve  a
personal sense of security and self righteousness.

     It  is interesting to note that Jesus spoke no  words
designed to control others;  and is regarded as being  the
Word  of God.   He did not seek security for himself;  yet
offered it as a gift to others.

     Those who seek security for themselves do not achieve
it,  because it is  a gift  offered by others and received
with difficulty;  for, to receive the gift of security you
must  admit  to  and  accept  your  own  limitations   and
vulnerability.   Security is the gift of a  social context
in which you may be free to  be vulnerable;  if you accept
the gift on its own  terms, rather than on your own terms.
Security is a gift which is offered,  not  something which
can be  imposed or achieved. Security is often rejected in
defensive  efforts which undermine the authentic  security
which   may  be  accepted  in  open  and  honest  personal
relationships.

     Addicts seek to achieve security, law, order, etc. in
manipulative  efforts to be in control in ways which  lead
to  the  rejection  and alienation of those  who  are  not
controlled.    Their addictive rejections  and  alienation
undermine  both  personal and communal integrity,   and so
prevent  the  enjoyment  of the  kind  of  security  which
addicts seek to achieve.  Their kind of security cannot be
achieved or enjoyed.   Efforts to achieve  it destroy  the
possibility  of  enjoying  that  which  is yearned for  in
ignorance of its real nature.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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