We continue to deny Reality because we are afraid of taking responsibility for our own self-transformation. We have all become neurotic expressing mental, emotional and physical reactions that are drastic and irrational. This global mass neurosis is an automatic, unconscious effort to escape or manage our deep anxiety. Healing begins by turning to face the colossal dragon that we imagine is pursuing us. Yes! The dragon exists only in our own mind.
There are consequences for failing to admit the difference between what is true and what is not true, and those consequences are catastrophic especially when widespread. How widespread? How about 8 billion people, give or take?
We are saying that virtually everyone in the global village is delusional. Being delusional means holding idiosyncratic beliefs that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder which can result in hospitalization for schizophrenia and delusional paranoia. Are we saying that humanity is crazy? You got it! Welcome to the Funny Farm folks.
For example, how long have Americans been harboring the major misconception of exceptionalism? “The idea of American exceptionalism is a squishy but durable concept, going back as far as John Winthrop’s famous 1630 sermon warning his fellow Massachusetts Bay colonists that their settlement would be a ‘city on a hill,’ whose successes, or failures, would be seen by the world.”[i]
Fast forward 400 years and shifting to Asia we see the consequences of denial unfolding in “Chinese exceptionalism.”[ii]
Whether American or Chinese exceptionalism, both are an illusion and in “great denial” of Reality.
________________
Supplemental Reading: The Great Denial, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
#38 Self-Deception
[i] Schuessler, Jennifer. “Reconciling the Pandemic with the Nation’s Self-Image.” The New York Times. April 29, 2020, p. A9.
[ii] Zhong, Raymond. “How I Found Real Voices in China.” The New York Times. April 29, 2020, p. A2.
