Why do people insist in doing those very things that they know, or should know, won’t work, or are self defeating?

Throughout our lifetimes we have met, experienced, and seen people who destroy the lives of others and their own lives by having a self serving priority. They use others rather than consider them. They take rather than give. They command and demand rather than share. They use people and things to gain wealth when the wealth doesn’t satisfy. The wealth that can only be experienced in true relationships is beyond them.

I had a student share her hurt caused by a gossip. I asked her what others said about the gossip. The gossiper was known. Though her words hurt others, her lifestyle was more destructive to herself than to those she worked to destroy for whatever selfish benefit she thought she would gain. Her “friends” weren’t. They were either afraid or using her like she used them, a covenant of despair. Every time she belittled others, she showed the world who she was herself.

We see it, but why do we still do it? Hitler was doomed from the start regardless of his seeming success because his entire process was based on hate and betrayal. His inner circle betrayed Hitler and each other just as Hitler did them. They murdered through their hatred all potential leaders and resources so there would be no way they could maintain the territories they conquered. Their cruelty created enemies of everyone, even those they needed. Some Russians celebrated the conquering Germans until the Germans turned every one of them into enemies. Their behavior was obvious to everyone except themselves.

Everyone who has worked for a large business, corporation, or institution, of any type has experienced the pain and suffering provided by working with or for cruel, self-serving individuals. The patterns Hitler performed in the extreme are around us every day in smaller and lighter versions. It is so evident how this self-serving cruelty fails, so why don’t we change? I think the simplest answer is four fold. One: we live in a polluted world in which the natural tendency is selfishness which leads to all the counter-productive thoughts, feelings, and actions. Two: It takes someone outside the system of this world, who isn’t part of the pollution, to show us the truth that we can’t see. Three: It takes a power beyond the boundaries of this world and beyond our individual strength to overcome the pollution that grows and inhabits this world. Four: Seeing beyond ourselves requires humility, which often is not the priority.

It is strange that Jesus isn’t the most obvious truth and desire.