Corruption Of The Self
Stop Corruption
I’ve been thinking about Corruption of the Self.
This isn’t as high class as it may sound, in fact I got the idea out of watching a clip from a Mexican comedy called The Peluche Family. (The Teddy Family in English…I think) The program is about the daily life of a common Mexican family and all the nonsense it involves, which is mainly all the tacit agreements of certain levels of corruption. But on that clip I realized that a constant theme of the program is how the Peluche family interacts with other characters who are either normal people with common morals, or people with better than average morals.
And how they try to corrupt them.
Oh, of course it’s not explicit corruption. In fact, very few would recognize it as such, much less be willing to point fingers and tell them that they are corrupting an intrinsically good person. They do it out of a worry of not understanding how these people so different from them can really deal with the world.
But the thing that made me write this now, was the ephiphany of thinking how this happens every day. All the time.
All of us, in our everyday interactions with others, are subject to corruption by others, and most of the time we aren’t even aware of it.
Let’s consider that you are a person who, like me, asks a lot of yourself. You feel that it is perfectly normal to do a lot of things, even if sometimes you do find yourself a bit overwhelmed. So one day, you’re on IM and start talking with one of your friends. You probably say something like “OMG! I have so much work. I’m barely keeping my head above the water XD It’s cold! XD” and you’re probably laughing nervously, because doing a lot of stuff makes you happy, and you feel happy when you’re working hard at something and straining yourself.
But then your friend says something like “Oh, I’m so sorry about that! But you always take on so much work, it’s not good for you to work so much at so many things! You should take time to rest and relax, watch some tv, let’s play World of Warcraft all night! J” and you freeze right there.
After all, maybe you really are doing something wrong for yourself. You could get sick from working so much, and need relaxation and a few hours of mindless tv watching. It could be, I mean, everybody does it too, so maybe the wrong one here is you.
Then you stop all the work, and spend the rest of the day watching tv shows and playing world of warcraft. When you come back the next day you work a little (what others would consider “normal”) and slack again. The next day, you don’t feel well. It feels like you’re wasting your time, and seeing your life pass between your open fingers. Something’s wrong, but you’re not sure what it is. After all, you’re doing the right things, aren’t you?
No.
You’ve been corrupted.
And the worst thing is that people usually do this all in the hopes of helping, it’s all in good will. But they are hurting you instead, even if you don’t realize what they’re doing.
So, what exactly can be considered as corruption?
I’d say that corruption is what takes you away from the state that makes you feel right.
Note that I never said that makes you happy or that makes you comfortable. Those things aren’t the answer, because the state that for you might be right could very well be teaching little kids to read in a remote village in Africa. Most of the time there you wouldn’t be happy, what with seeing all the despair, and deaths, and poverty; you would most likely be angry and saddened most of the time. And you sure as hell wouldn’t be comfortable.
But you would feel right. Maybe when you see that you are using your life to make a difference in the future of someone else, regardless of whether you have money or security, makes you feel like that is what you are supposed to be doing. That there is no better place to be or better thing to do for you.
For some of us, it isn’t about money or fame, but of doing something meaningful with our lives. Even if we must sacrifice them to do that.
Corruption is one of the worst poisons there are, because it can take so many forms.
If you’re a natural warrior, a loving ‘let’s give everyone love and a free panda!’ person could easily make you feel bad about your way of seeing life.
If you’re a naturally nice person, always honest and well mannered, a devious and manipulative person could make you feel dumb about being so trusting.
I think the best protection against corruption is to get clear about who you really are and what you want. I thought initially that this was pretty easy, but one mistake I see most people doing is that instead of an unbiased way of looking at the person they are, they think very negatively about themselves.
They think of themselves as weak and useless, or dumb, or useless. And then start their way on to being professional whiner, or worse, fall into depression.
I don’t want to say that we all are great people who can do anything we want and come out on top of everything that life throws at us, because I know better than most how it is when you really are useless, dumb and weak.
But the surprise is that even if you really are such a person, you don’t have to remain like that forever. The thing you have to do is to simply acknowledge that you suck and move on. Tell yourself: “I’m dumb and have no skills whatsoever.” That’s fine, we were all like that at some point in our lives. Now, think about what you would like to be, and map the path you need to follow to become that person.
With the image of the person you want to be clear in your mind you will be able to identify when the advice of someone can corrupt your vision or help you achieve it.
Gut!