Hello word-user, I know that for us it’s tempting to believe that we are in control.
And to assume that with 20 years or more of school under our belts, we are not easy to fool.
Not by a priest, a politician, or a prankster anyway.
Other word-users might get bamboozled by a cheater or a con artist, but not us.
The contrary is true.
No one fools you more than the words you use.
We are easy to fool
Yup, we don’t fool each other.
We fool ourselves by the words we use.
Have you ever been fooled by fake news?
If you don’t recognize fake news, they are words.
If you’ve ever been fooled by fake news, then you know you’ve been conned by a con artist’s words.
In this case, it concerns a word-master that used to be the prez of a country that once was mine.
Emotional reactions
If you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you, you lose.
You lose because if words control you, that means everyone else can control you.
And everybody knows, you can’t win with a losing hand.
Mirror mirror on the wall
When you look in the mirror . . .
. . . do you see what others see? Or is your reflection like Narcissus’, far less (or far more) attractive than what others see when they look at you?
You may assume that you are so good and so useful that anyone who doesn’t see that is confused or misguided.
For all I know you may feel like a hypocrite, a trickster or an unseen genius…
These are all forms of self-delusion.
Let go
Letting go of self-delusion is the hardest thing of all to let go of.
A useful exit might be to ask if it’s working, or to ask if the opposite is true for a minute or two.
Self-delusion becomes a habit fast, but it’s not the habit.
It’s the user.
“Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.” – Napoleon Hill
“The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffet
What decides what you feel?
If not you decide what you feel, then somebody else is doing it for you as we speak.
In this case, you know what you must do.
But that doesn’t mean that you’ll do it.
Knowing what you must do doesn’t make you a better person.
Doing it does.
The marketplace
If the marketplace sees something of value, perhaps the marketplace is right.
And if they aren’t, you are free to develop the empathy to understand what’s missing in your story about what you do or how you do it.
Marketing to others begins with marketing to yourself.
Should self-deception be the rocket fuel to achieve your goals, it might be worth accepting it for a while, provided you remember that your ability to fool yourself at the same time disables your ability to create generous and useful work in the long run.
A delusional trance will eat away at your confidence and serenity.
I’m not saying it’s easy to see yourself as others do. All I’m saying is perhaps they’re onto something.
Words don’t make sense
To assume words make sense presupposes that they have the organs required.
I’ve looked at words from both sides now.
They don’t.
The one with the organs to feel, to smell, to hear, to touch, to taste, and to see — the sensational one — is you.
Freedom not used is freedom lost
Some word-users don’t want you to use your senses.
You probably know what I’m talking about. The subject matter quite well known. I’m talking about those that have been telling the world’s most successful lie for thousands of years with no end in sight because their business model depends on it. Those that want you to believe the truth is in a book they have a copy under their arm, to each their own, on the strength of which many have been, and continue to be as we speak, beheaded, tortured and — less frequent these days — burned at stakes,
Galileo saved his head by declaring that the same divinity that gives us the senses isn’t the same that doesn’t want us to make any sense until we die.
“When you see a difference between the guidebook and the bird, believe the bird.” – Tara Brach
When Galileo saw the guidebook and the moon, he believed the moon
The sensational one
The sensational one — the one with the organs — is you.
Each of your organs’ senses — feel, smell, hear, touch, taste, and see — can be duped by optical illusions and virtual realities. There are many ways to do this.
Most of what can be seen, heard, and known, you do not see, hear, or know.
But if you have any reaction to fake news, only the word-master that invented it will be happy.
