ORIGINS AND ORIENTATIONS OF OUR HYPOCRISY

When people talk, they lay lines on each other, do a lot of role playing, sidestep, shilly-shally and engage in all manner of vagueness and innuendo. We do this and expect others to do it, yet at the same time we profess to long for the plain truth, for people to say what they mean, simple as that. Such hypocrisy is a human universal.                         

       ~ Steven Pinker 

Hypocrisy is an evil trait, that's what we perceive it in objective terms. We tend to criticise people who are not upto their words and this criticism may range from humiliating to public shaming to gossiping and so on. Now, the matter of discussion here is that there is a field of Psychology called Psychoanalysis that claims to explain this human behavior of hypocrisy and the reactions of people toward hypocrisy. Some claim that it is a conscious act that people do for personal gains(Majority,because you know we pretend to be woke inside but we do that being stupid) , some say it is an unconscious act of folly, others radically assert that this is in our subconscious to be a moral hypocrite ( this is a common belief in the new woke culture which shows an unnecessary sympathy to every other crime that people do by saying things like, "Oh! Bad is necessary for the existence of good" and many such words with no justifiable evidence). 

This is an attempt not to sympathize with people who are hypocrites, neither is this an attempt to criminalise the trait further, but to explain the term Psychoanalytically using Carl Jung's and Sigmund Freud's ways of seeing it and then adding them in a proper ratio so that eventually we don't emotionally react to hypocrisy when we encounter it in ourselves or in others but to responsibly sort it by either acceptance or by honest rejection. 

HYPOCRISY IS A GREY TRAIT 

First of all, we have to admit a simple fact that hypocrisy is not a black and white term(which most of the things in this world are) , whether you are an hypocrite or not is not the correct way to reason it. Not all hypocrites (or those who are falsely called so) are the same. There is a wide range of this hypocritic nature. Different behaviors depending upon different circumstancial conditions are seen. 

OBVIOUSLY THERE EXISTS CONSCIOUS HYPOCRISY WHICH IS EVIL 

But this is more subtle than you think. There is a basic nature of human beings, need for assurance. We want assurance of good days more than the good days themselves. This is because we fear the mentioning of dystopia more than the dystopia itself. The reason we don't fear actual dystopia is biological. Adaptability is the reason. Of course, if something bad happens, we try to adapt to it. Adaptability requires you not to be nostalgic about old days and not to be fearful about the new normal. Basically, Since you are programmed by someone ( God may be) to act vigourously during bad times, your psyche becomes numb at times of Catastrophe. 

This can be used by a street smart guy like a politician to fool you by serving you a delicious meal of thought about good days or by your boyfriend about how "happily ever after" you will live with him after marriage ( If you are psychologically mature, you know that everyone of us is a potential monster in our minds, so this ever after will happen never after marriage) . So, the point is not whether you taught the guy a lesson not to mess with your mind with fake positivity but it is that Can you resist the temptation of the sweetest drug in this world, "POSITIVITY". 

UNCONSCIOUS HYPOCRISY :- THE SIMPLEST CASE 

Mark Twain said, "You don't have to remember anything if you speak the truth".

But let's reconsider this thing. Many times, the Definitions of truth and falsity are so sublime that we unconsciously develop a memory in our minds having records of your own truths and the truths of the society separately. Let's see what exactly I meant.Suppose you are a boy born in a patriarchal family which always gives you an upper hand over the woman of the family. But you are a well educated guy now and according to a hidden norm of this world, the sign of a well educated guy is that he should be politically and socially correct. Your political and social correctness tells you "Respect woman, Equal Rights blah blah" ( please don't hit me for this, I am no misogynist). But you have your emotional needs according to your conditioning. You have always seen your mother taking care of needs of your father, serving him tea in the morning and so on and so on. 

Now what is your truth? Are you a patriarchal guy inside which you always hated because of your ideology of being a feminist? Or are you a feminist who is constantly fighting patriarchy within himself.In a wider picture, the truth here is subjective. Your conditioning was not in your hands; so inside you , there is a desire for a caring submissive woman (which is not a bad desire). My god! You must be very careful here because fighting with the inner patriarchy is necessary but not this radically by cutting off your emotional needs entirely. Obviously you have a choice to select a partner of your taste. 

Thus, In this case, you may unconsciously become a hypocrite occasionally in front of your girlfriend may be wishing her to be submissive on one hand but also saying things like you want her to have equal rights. 

In a nutshell, 

What we sometimes believe is not according to our adaptation. It takes time for anyone to adapt to a particular right belief. So, the judgement of hypocrisy should let go people who are in the process of self correction. 

SUBCONSCIOUS HYPOCRISY :- THE DAILY HYPOCRISY WE ACCEPT OURSELVES TO LIVE BY BUT DON'T WANT TO ADDRESS 

 

So yes, There is an intrinsic truth in the statement that we all are morally hypocrites. 

There is a couplet by Kabir Das, a Medieval Poet in India, 

 

कथनी मीठी खांड सी, करनी विष की लोय |

कथनी तज करनी करै, तो विष अमरित होय ||

Deconstructing it, Kabir says that you have preachings like sugar but actions like poison. 

You should leave preaching and act well so that the poison becomes an immortal syrup. 

This is apt , But, Just imagine what will happen when you encounter someday that you were being a hypocrite about something. You feel bad inside obviously, but your brain starts thinking that how can you get rid of this feeling, this feeling of being a hypocrite. And obviously we look for a temporary solution to give counter reasons of why we are not. But, when that doesn't seem fruitful, we look for  a permanent solution of whether we can act well to rectify our hypocrisy (which is seemingly healthy). But suppose that also is not possible ( and believe me, there are circumstances when rectifying your actions are not that easy), then you adapt to it and you literally start living with your hypocrisy. This may be for greater good, or may be a regretful decision. Like a politician, who knows the truth or the right way, but the narrative that his party wants to lay in order to serve their populist agenda, makes him either not to speak about those matters when asked about or to support unwillingly. So कथनी can't be Foresaken in times when कथनी is your only करनी.

But our point is the saturation state of this kind of a person who compromises with his judgements of truth. The person, in a course of time, starts unconsciously believing the falsity he unwillingly supported and then the inner conscience that "he is wrong" is pushed to the subconscious.

Now the question is, how then is he a hypocrite if his beliefs now are according to his will and actions? This question arises only because we don't understand the science of beliefs. The sublime nature of beliefs makes them complicated. You know many times your Self (That is You) has a varied set of beliefs, your one part of mind may believe one thing, your other part may believe the exact opposite. 

Freud classified different Selves of us in three parts, viz. 

1. ID 

2.Ego 

3. Superego 

The ID is Hedonistic. It is always after personal desires irrespective of it's legitimacy. 

The Superego is the constant urge of us to follow the norms of the society. 

The Ego is the balance of both. 

So sometimes, we don't even know that we are being a hypocrite because once we identified ourselves, we adapt with it and then forget about it( just like we forget the physical pain, when we distract ourselves by watching TV may be) 

We forget our hypocrisy once we adapt ourselves with it. 

 

CONCLUSION 

See, it's so normal to be called a hypocrite now a days where the liberal culture forces you to believe certain things for being politically correct. So I think we should be careful about the word because the more you use a word, the more likely it is that it may loose it's meaning. 

In a nutshell, "SAVE THE MEANING OF HYPOCRISY SO THAT IT DOESN'T BECOME A TABOO AS IF BEING A HYPOCRITE IS BEING A WITCH OR SOMETHING".

Next blog in this series will be related to this picture 👇