About Putin, Hitler, Ideologies and Beliefs
A belief is the absence of experience. Our lack of knowledge about the natural order, shared heritage and the role of humanity in all things, along with our poor understanding of race, religion, politics and economics, create a level of fear and doubt in public. We are all born explorers and we live though different levels of self-awareness and knowledge, while dealing with challenges of this life. We interact with each other to seek the truth and to enjoy the adventures of this life. Whether we are examining human life in a developing or a developed country, a combination of ignorance, arrogance, and narcissism continue to be an influential factor in shaping the destinies of people all over the world.
“Destiny is what you create for yourself. Fate is when you fail to create your own destiny.” –Sadhguru
For many millennia, personality traits have been recognized and studied by intellectuals from East and West who value the governing principles of natural order and democratic ideals of human dignity and equity. As many of us are genetically warriors, thrill seekers and risk takers, a level of some egocentric vices such as ignorance, arrogance, and narcissism is present in us. Along the way, while we live our lives, we struggle, learn, evolve, and continue enjoying the adventures of this life. In spite of our flaws, we enjoy a strong sense of identity, but we are almost always hopeful and longing to do better. Most of us have an innate desire and ability to be good, to do good, and to make a difference. We want to mimic and hone our virtues of character, as we cherish to become loving human beings and good citizens. No doubts, the society has become more progressive, equitable and inclusive. In reality, this life offers a spectrum of vibrant possibilities, and nothing in our lives is absolutely black or white. Recent history clearly points to our relentless quest for unity and moving toward one world culture. Interestingly, much of the extremist philosophy and some of the inherited cultural beliefs are quite abhorrent for the younger generation. As the society has advanced, some so-called eminent and well-intentioned good old ideals have become moronic. So, while navigating through life experiences, when we realize the consequence of a repugnant behavior and its resultant setback, we are able to learn from it. However, some narrow-minded people become radicalized due to fear, worries, strict upbringing, emotional neglect, and related psychological issues. When we come across such individuals with traumatic childhood experiences and a combination of apparently intense negative personality traits, we find extremist ideologies in our ranks.
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” –Bertrand Russell
These people are beyond stubborn, as they normally struggle to process and manage feelings of stress and anxiety. Unable to accept the hard truth and lacking the sense of differentiation, they work hard to escape the truth. Extremism is characterized by poor attention, disorganized behavior, and includes uncontrolled emotional expression. Lacking in true identity and solidarity, they often feel frustrated over little things, make poor judgement calls and easily get angry. It is also characteristic in such individuals to resort to self-deception by gaslighting and blaming others. Due to their unstable emotional, psychological, and mental disposition, they exhibit a tendency to exploit others and create chaos. These are extremists who reside amongst us in all walks of life, and such elements are responsible for creating much disturbances in families and societies. Extremists are generally greedy and bigot, not fit to lead the public because these are barbarians complicit in fomenting divisive rhetoric and violence. Furthermore, they might possess the celebrity glamour to turn masses into short-sighted and naïve reformers. Instead of cultivating compassion, empathy, love, and respect, their messaging is rooted in fear, hatred and lies. Their fearmongering could have grave implications for us, as they are masters of concocting alternate realities and instilling paranoia. Their incoherent and bizarre behavior is very divisive, dangerous and destructive, as it give rise to widespread distrust in relationships and hierarchies. Ironically, such people refuse to accept the truth that we all, regardless of who we are, have the same shared human values.
When extremism takes a foot hold anywhere, false alternate realities pop-up quickly and start to spread, which threatens the establishment and democratic principles of a healthy society. Spewing noises and impudence, they continue promoting deviant ideas amongst unsuspecting masses. These individuals don’t hesitate to weaponize alternate realities, which leads to weakening of moral values, and extremist forces becoming corruptly powerful. When these devious people gain power, they pretend to be nationalist and use the guise of patriotic populism to implement their corrupt plans. No matter where we are in life, we have or we will experience disgusting extremist ideologies espoused by such unscrupulous elements. Generally, we find three stages of extremism manifesting in people, namely, ‘Separatists’, ‘Hardliner’ and ‘Terrorists’.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” –Friedrich Nietzsche
Our mind is immensely powerful, it creates our reality, and we are what we think and do! We live in our own world but we have the ability to transform ourselves by balancing our egocentric persona with gratitude, contentment, empathy, and humility. We need to understand, we are in this together, and our true identities are higher than any race, religion, or politics. So let us have the patience, reset our expectations, and work to change from within first. Above and beyond peace and happiness, it’s a process to tame the mind and improve the attention. As we now scientifically understand, a significant part of patience and relaxation is actually mindfulness, attention to the present moment, which enhances the overall well-being. So, to reiterate the important point, when we experience the devastating consequences of our ideologies, we consciously explore our mind and realize the depth of the abyss. In general, it is a realization about the ego, how it was blinded by our ideology, and how we conducted our lives. To become better human beings, we eventually learn to gaze into this darkness and find the light to fight our inner demons. Taming our mind and conquering our fears, we change our relationship with the ego and liberate ourselves from the so-called well-intentioned but moronic assumptions. This resolve is an exciting opportunity to connect, compromise, co-create, and make a difference. The truth is, there is no bogeyman out there. We can’t afford to lose our freedom for our beliefs. The fear of the unknown is not worthy of our attention because fear is the path to the dark side. Largely the answer is within the problem. We can learn from the history. . . Though there are numerous recent world class examples of extremism available for reflection. Now we all know Putin and have read about Hitler. With keen attention and progressive clarity, the process to deal with the menace of extremism is evolving everyday in our lives. If we care to understand the challenges and deal with our fears and demons, we are the solution. We can seek the truth, improve our perception, and learn to coexist. . . We wouldn’t let the evil and malicious forces of extremism win, because we know that a lack of awareness, acceptance, and action can be self-sabotaging and suicidal!
Pete Sehgal 2016–2023 CC-BY-NC-ND
Updated March 14, 2022
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