Dostoevsky, Self-delusion, and taking offense
Unable to fathom today’s events, we turn to books for some understanding of what is
happening. And the great author, psychologist and philosopher, Fyodor Dostoevsky,
as he often does, obliges us with insight. Here, the disreputable father of the
Karamazov family asks Father Zossima how he can reform, and Zossima’s reply
concludes:
“Above all,
do not lie… A man who lies to himself and
listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth
either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect
towards himself and others. Not respecting
anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions
and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices
reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others
and to himself. A man who lies to
himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good
to take offense, doesn't it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him,
and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty
of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a
word and made a mountain out of a pea — he knows all of that, and still he is
the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great
pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility”… Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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