"It is difficult to get a man to
understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding
it!"
The previous article expanded on this
statement and listed some external factors that might be involved in addition
to someone’s salary.
It is not just about employees and possible losses
in the outer world: Upton Sinclair’s proposition can be applied to the inner
world of many people when psychological factors are involved.
There may also be some unseen influences at
work in the form of good and evil forces.
Some psychological factors
Psychological defence mechanisms may be at
work in many cases where people just don’t or won’t get or accept an inconvenient, unwelcome
truth. For example, we may try very hard
but unsuccessfully to get through to someone that they need to take
responsibility for their actions.
We need to learn that they simply cannot afford to understand; we need to think about the reasons for their determination not to learn or understand something in terms of what might be at stake for them; we need to think of the implications if they do come to understand and accept something.
We need to understand that even if we are trying
to get ideas across to someone for their benefit and not ours, we may make
matters much worse.
They may feel that we are trying to force
bitter pills on them; they may feel that their lifelines are being threatened. They
may avoid or even attack us. We may be playing with fire.
What else might be at stake?
Understanding and accepting something may
mean the loss not only of someone’s salary and peace of mind, but in extreme
cases of their sanity. Even their life may be at risk.
Their world view and philosophy of life may
collapse like a house of cards. They may lose their ability to function. They
may lose all hope for the future and even their reason for living.
Huge amounts of negative emotions may be
unleashed and great psychological pain may be involved.
Ignorance really is bliss in many cases. The
truth can devastate and destroy.
Understanding and unseen influences
I get the idea that behind and below the
psychological factors there are two subtle forces at work, one good and one
evil.
These forces both conceal and reveal the
truth. Evil acts to sabotage people’s lives for its own benefit, the opposite
force acts for the benefit of the person involved.
The first subtle influence may prevent its
victims from realising things until it is too late, or even at all. It may blind
someone for many years then suddenly pull the rug out from under them just to
feast on the resulting negative emotion. For example, it may force someone to realise
that they have wasted their life when it is too late to do anything about it.
The other force may protect people who just
cannot deal with reality. It may also drip-feed
people who will benefit in the long term by facing up to the truth, giving them
only what they can cope with at the time.
Dealing with bureaucrats who won’t listen
because their pay rises and promotion are at stake is bad enough; dealing with
people whose refusal to understand is because metaphysical factors are involved
is much worse.
It is even more important in these cases to
be aware of what we are up against.
Before trying to knock a brick wall down, we
need to understand why it was built in the first place.
Two opposing forces and a wall:
