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     %ENTRAP DYNAMICS DISHONEST COLLUSION ADDICTION 910514

     To avoid becoming entrapped in patterns of  dishonest
behavior, we need to understand at some level the dynamics
of  how  patterns of dishonest behavior seduce  people  to
become participant victims in the patterns.

     Legalists make  rules  which  they use  as  means  to
manipulate people who are less powerful  than  they are.
    Potential  victims of manipulative legalists see  what
might  happen, and seek to defend themselves against being
manipulated by legalists.

     One of the unfair rules which legalists make and use,
is the rule which says that their potential victims should
always be honest.

     The   potential  victims  of  such  a  rule  at  some
intuitive level  see the probable use which legalists  are
likely  to make  of  that rule;  i.e.,  they are likely to
use it  to seduce potential victims to be honest about how
they    have  broken   legalists'    other  rules  so  the
legalists   will   be  able   to   justify  themselves  in
punishing  those  who  show disrespect for the  legalists'
system of rules.

     Thus the potential victims of the legalists and their
system  of alienative rules, feel that they must break the
rule that one must always be honest, they must break it in
order  to  defend themselves against the manipulations  of
the  legalists;   thus they are dishonest in an effort  to
protect   themselves  against legalists'    manipulations.
Potential victims of legalists become dishonest to protect
themselves against the manipulations of legalists.

     Once  dishonesty  is  used  as  a   defense   against
manipulations   of  legalists,   it  is  hard  not  to use
dishonesty    as  a  tool  to  achieve   other  apparently
worthwhile  goals.     Tools which have been found  to  be
useful   in  one situation,  invite exploration to see  if
they may  be useful in other situations.   When dishonesty
has  been   found   to  be useful  in   defending  oneself
against manipulative  legalists,  it  is tempting to  look
for other situations in which dishonesty might be a useful
tool.

     We get ahead in life in large part by how we  impress
other people in favorable ways.  If dishonesty is a useful
tool  in  some  situation,  it might be a useful  tool  in
gaining control of how we impress others.   We may find it
useful to become dishonest in order to deceive others into
having  a favorable impression of us.   We move from using
dishonesty as a tool of self defense against  manipulative
legalists,   to  using  dishonesty  as  a  tool  of   self
advancement in a competitive environment.

     Once we become aware of how dishonest can be used  to
deceive  others into having a favorable impression of  us,
we fear that others may be using dishonesty to deceive us;
and  so we move to prevent that; by requiring others to be
honest  with us,  through some system of legalistic  rules
and   regulations   which  are  to  be  enforced   through
punishments  appropriate  to the infractions.     Once  we
have  made   this  additional   move,     we  have  become
manipulative  legalists ourselves;  but we cannot tolerate
that  thought,    and so we make  rules  which protect  us
from such  a  thought.    To defend  ourselves against the
pain of recognizing that  we have  become  legalists,   we
engage  in  collusive  games  of  mutual   self  deception
within  which we  deceive  ourselves into   believing that
we  are  not   improperly   using dishonesty.     We blind
ourselves  and  each  other  to  the consequences  of  the
dishonesty  which we use in our efforts to  get  ahead  in
our   competitive   environment.       We    have   become
participant  victims  in  a collusion,  in  some  form  of
addiction and/or in some form of codependency.

     See the preceding essays for further consideration of
these issues.

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