Thursday, 25 September 2014

Hypocritical

The common Chinese word for this is "spear vs shield" (矛盾) from a story about a salesman who sold an impenetrable shield as well as an all piercing spear. Another is 虛偽 (Xu Wei). In common use they actually mean contradiction and pretension, which lack the emphasis of a state of being (rather than an occurrence) in the word hypocritical.

Could it be that my own culture makes it a habit to gloss over hypocrisy (and discrimination which are related in my mind) and excuses both if you're powerful and rich enough? Both hypocrisy and discrimination have to do with lack of honesty with one's own self.

Human nature tends to avoid confrontation with fear and past mistakes. Admission of either is often mistaken to be a sign of weakness. But in reality it takes courage and great inner strength to face what I'm scared of and admit a wrong.  Unless you're a dictator.

No comments:

Post a Comment