This is http://www.essayz.com/a9301291.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %TRANSCEND LAYER FORMS DISHONEST COLLUSION SHARE 930129 To transcend our multitude of kinds of collusive dishonesty we need to become open and honest with ourselves and each other regarding the many ways in which we use our different kinds of dishonesty to cover each other kind of dishonesty from view. In the beginning there is the simple form of dishonesty: 1. Simply telling a lie; saying something to ourself or another person which is not true---and which we know is not true. (If we sincerely believe in a statement which we take to be a true statement---when it is not true---then we are NOT telling a lie, we are mis-informed or uninformed.) Known un-truths which are real lies may be presented in non-verbal statements as well in verbal statements. We may BEHAVE a deliberate lie by deliberately acting in a way which conveys the un-truth. We may BEHAVE a deliberate lie by deliberately acting in a way which encourages another person to draw/keep a false conclusion. We may excuse such lies by telling ourself the real truth that we do not have unlimited responsibility to make sure that all other people are fully aware of all truths/un- truths as such. After the beginning in which we tell simple lies there is the need to use additional kinds of dishonesty: 2. We may knowing lie about the simple lies we have told or behaved. We may say that we have been honest, when we know we have been dis-honest. We may claim that our un- true statement(s) or behavior(s) is/are true; when we know it/they is/are un-true. 3. We may perfect our acting skills so that we can deliberately act as if we really believe that our un- truths are true; and act as if our true statements which are inconsistent with our un-truths are open-faced lies which are told in jest. Such a pattern of deliberate and refined pretense is clearly a different kind of dishonesty than is telling a simple isolated lie. But there are yet additional kinds of dishonesty in the layered prisons which we wrap about ourselves. 4. Our acting skill may become so great that we deceive even ourselves. The convincing actor becomes fully identified with the role which the great actor is playing; by becoming the person who is being portrayed. To be fully convincing about un-truths which are presented as truths, we must come to sincerely believe that the un-truths are true; and that really true statements which are contradictory to the un-truths are not true. To be fully convincing we must become coherently confused; keeping straight in a confused way: which UN-TRUTHS are really NOT-TRUE, which "un-truths" are actually TRUTHS, which "truths" are really NOT-TRUE, and which TRUTHS are really TRUE. 5. Our charade may be so convincing that we become convinced that our confusion is a coherent pattern of logic/reason. This is yet another kind of dishonesty through which we keep ourselves and each other from recognizing other forms of dishonesty. We pretend that we are not confused; when in fact we are so confused that we do not know that we are confused. Our kinds of dishonesty can explode without limit: 6. We may learn how to pretend to be people of integrity while we are engaged in all kinds of disintegrative behaviors: equating integrity with conformity, using excommunication to "promote integrity", rejecting creative people to "make them be good", pretending to be "God's Servants" as members of exclusive clubs and churches and professions, etc. When we engage in such forms of dishonesty we are fully into playing collusive games of mutual self deception. While we and our communities are disintegrating because of our collusive games of mutual self deception we continue to engage in additional kinds of dishonesty: 7. As we and our communities are disintegrating we may pretend that we are on the road to heaven. We may pretend that those people who are in heaven are in hell. We may pretend that angels who are telling the truth are agents of the devil, or the devil herself. There is virtually no limit to the kinds of dishonesty which we may engage in to conceal other kinds of dishonesty. If we are to recover from our disintegrative patterns we need to learn to recognize the multitude of kinds of dishonesty and how we have used them to conceal them; and we need to be open and honest with each other about those uses. This will mean painful changes! We cannot escape from the dishonest prisons in which we are trapped if we pretend that the needed changes will not be painful, or pretend that life can go on forever in the traditional dishonest ways to which we have become accustomed as we and our communities are disintegrating. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================