Philosophy  Section
Ruminations upon Ultimate Matters and their relationship to playing  the guitar

Why Are There Bad People? 
Recognizing Inter-Dependency Leads to the Expansion of Self.

  So now, we must ask the million dollar question! Why do some people choose to do bad, and other people choose to do good? Or to put it another way “why are there bad people, and why do they keep doing bad things?”

 Let us first define “bad people”. A bad person is one whose actions serve their own needs, their own wrong needs. Bad people are not concerned in any way with the needs, right or wrong, of others. Others are seen only as objects to be manipulated for the purpose of serving the bad persons needs. The actions of bad people always increase the suffering of others.

 Good people are those whose actions serve their own needs, their own right needs, as well as the right needs of others. Good people never undertake an action without the consideration of the right needs of the other party. Their actions create a decrease in suffering, and an increase in healing and growth for both parties in a relationship. 

Why are bad people they way they are, doing the things they do, and good people the way they are, doing the things they do? Good people know something bad people don’t know, and this knowledge is what makes them good. They know that all people are connected in a vast network of “inter-dependent” needs. They have learned this because they have gone through the necessary stages of development as human beings that leads to this knowledge. These stages begin at birth, when we are all born into a state of complete powerlessness and dependency. 

At this stage every other person is all powerful. The infant lives in a world populated by giants, and survives only at their mercy and pleasure. The infant and small child is completely dependent. However, as soon as the sense of self (ego, or “I”) begins to develop in the child, the first power grab is made, the first attempt to go to the opposite pole, “independence” and ultimate power. It is usually called “the terrible twos”.   

This happens because the child notices something very interesting: it notices it has power. Power is the ability to create change, and the child notices it can create a lot of changes in its little world! Those grown ups just seem to be hopping around all day in response to every little thing that kid does, cute or unbearable! Usually, the attempt to totally dominate the world does not work out for our little two year old. Although the little rascal can be a major influence in what kind of day people close by are going to have, those people still seem to resist placing complete control of the whole place at his or her little feet. 

But not to worry, another and more sophisticated attempt will probably be made in about ten to fifteen years. It’s called “adolescence” or “being a teenager”. 

By then, most kids have a whole new list of reasons WHY they want to be all powerful and dominate the world with absolute power, unencumbered by all those hang-ups their parents and everyone else has about “responsibility” and all that crap! By now, they have a long list of grievances and resentments, maybe downright hatred, for everything that “happened to them” along the way to their second decade, and for the people that helped it “happen to them”. And a lot of the time, they have every right to feel that way about a lot of the things on their list.   

Justified or not, the anger and resentment, or illusory ideas about ones true power that a person may bring into their adult functioning will only act as an impediment to the use of their powers in that adult world. Whereas they should be busy creating a new world of nurturing relationships and fulfillment for themselves, they will still be fighting the ghosts of enemies of the past, who should long ago have been laid to permanent rest.  

And so, they may prolong the attempt to achieve absolute power and control over the world, complete “independence”, or they may prolong the attempt to maintain an earlier state of complete “dependence”, and avoid all their “real needs”, which includes the need to learn responsibility (the ability to respond, to act) for all aspects of oneself, most especially ones physical and emotional well-being (the two areas where responsibility is most avoided). 

Striving for “independence”, or “dependence” are really both forms of the same thing: resistance to a fundamental “right need”, placed by our very nature, on all human beings, the need to “expand the self”.  

The self is expanded through the recognition and acceptance of our true state of “inter-dependence” with everything outside of us, other people, and everything else. The intended course of development for a human being is the navigation through the states of Dependence, through Independence, to Inter-Dependence.

The Expansion of Self 

The “expansion of self” means that the idea and feeling of who we are begins to change, to expand in such a way that it actually begins to include other people. We perform an act of identification with other people (or other beings or even “things”) that is so fundamental that it erases the previous boundaries between “self” and “other”. This demonstrates (and in fact must demonstrate itself, or it isn’t real) in our actions toward other people. It leads to a complete embrace of what is aptly called “The Golden Rule”. We actually become incapable of treating another person in a way we do not want to be treated, because we can no longer feel a fundamental difference between ourselves and the other person! 

This takes place on an emotional level, but it is founded equally upon an understanding that our own best welfare is served by promoting the welfare of others. We KNOW we are harming ourselves if we act to harm another, and so, we “selfishly” do no harm to others. We don’t even act “good” to be “good”, if anything, we are just being smart! 

Any parent worth the name has experienced this expansion of self. You would never think when you were a little kid tearing open your birthday presents that the day would come when you would enjoy watching someone else open their presents more than you enjoy opening your own, but that is what happens for every good parent.   

You were going along minding your own business in your adult life, trying to get whatever you want out of life, and all of a sudden there is this little bundle of something you call your child, that you find yourself willing to lay down your life for if need be! ( I remember hearing an interview once with Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News, talking about the recent birth of his daughter. He seemed to be amazed at the sudden and unexpected change in himself, and said “all of a sudden, there is this little creature I would walk through fire for”) 

This is a simple, natural, and common mechanism whereby the “expansion of self” is generated. It can and does happen in all kinds of ways, whenever the “trans-personal” connection is made. It can be made through charity work, the conduct of your business or personal relationships, anything that causes feeling and action that is based on a new expanded boundary of “self”. (Of course, if you are doing these things in order to “be a good person”, or avoid guilt for being a bad person, then this expansion of self does not take place, even though the actions are “performed”. In fact, the self becomes even smaller and hardened into itself.) 

The highest form of “selfishness” is where “self” is expanded to include other selves, ultimately, all other selves. It must occur for happiness to be a possibility for us, and it must be done according to the laws which govern the process. Many people have a problem with this idea, because they have been taught badly. They have not been taught the “expansion” of self, but rather, the “loss of self”. Of course, there is no difference between the two if the meaning of the words is penetrated, but “loss of self” is easily mis-understood as “denial of self”, and is used by bad people to control others through guilt. We are made to feel guilty about even HAVING  a self, and having desires and needs (“give up your selfishness, stop being the way you want to be, and doing the things you want to do, and start being the way I want you to be, and start doing the things I want you to do”!). 

Sadly, there is a whole school of thought, sometimes overtly transmitted as a philosophy, and sometimes subtly transmitted as an attitude. It says “if it feels good, there must be something wrong with it”. The path to growth and expansion of the self is exactly the opposite. Growth takes place not by denying the existence of needs and desires, or denying their fulfillment. Growth occurs through the fulfillment of needs and desires, right needs in their right time, and as those needs and desires are fulfilled, the self grows and expands. The Universe is seen and felt to be a loving place that responds to our needs, and so we are allowed to love in return. This leads to a natural response that often manifests in what is called a “belief in God”, which is simply another way of saying “I feel loved and taken care of by the Universe”. 

Conversely, whenever I hear someone tell me they are an atheist, I translate their statement in my mind to “I do not feel loved and taken care of by the Universe”, because that is what they are really saying, usually because they haven’t been loved or taken care of in their world. 

Those who follow the school of “denial of self” always appear, no matter what kind of “spirituality” may come out of their mouth, to be unhappy people. This is because they ARE unhappy people, and there is nothing spiritual about them. They are deluded and ignorant, and they would like everyone else to join them, especially the happy people!   

The path to expansion of self is, as I said, achieved through the fulfillment of needs and desires, but this means needs that are “right needs” in their time, and desires that are not violations of others right needs. A major problem in the state of humanity is that needs are often NOT met in their appropriate time, and they remain long past that time. They are “right” in one way, and “wrong” in another. A child not picked up and held will become a neurotic adult looking for love in a hungry and unhealthy way, stuck with an unfulfilled need, “right” in its time, and “wrong” in its present expression. It is everyone’s responsibility to examine themselves and inventory their inner life, determine the damage that unfulfilled needs created, and how they carry that damage with them, and project it into the world. It is a lifetime of work not even begun by most people.   

Those who know the truth, know this: all people are inherently “selfish” and, in the final analysis, are only concerned with their own needs and desires. Further, this is natural and there is nothing wrong with it, as long as, during the course of life, that self is allowed to “expand”, including other beings, and allowing the level and quality of ones own needs and desires to change, reflecting the expanded self. In this way our entire self is embraced, brought forward, and expanded as it encounters the world. Our happiness is the happiness of others, and the happiness of others is our happiness. 

This expansion takes place by following the path of love, which is also the path of the artist. It says “if it feels good, do it, and keep doing it, if it feels bad, stop doing it”. 

The secret, and listen closely, is “who is it feeling good to?”. Is it feeling good to your contracted, small self, that is serving your own wrong needs, or is it serving your expanding self? And how will you know? You will know by being deeply sensitive and true to yourself. One way leads to an increase in misery inside you and outside you, the other way leads to increased feelings of happiness and love, inside and out. This is why human beings are capable of such diverse behaviors, inexplicable to those without these understandings. You may see the libertine with unlimited money and power, indulging every passion, and making themselves miserable to death in the process if no trans-personal connection is made in their lives (which is why many people who attain great wealth add a deeper level of meaning to their lives by doing charity and philanthropic work). Or, you may see the saint or patriot going happily to their death as they give their lives for a greater cause, responding to the highest needs we humans can have, the need to manifest our divine nature.  

For those who have undergone this process, “morality” is not necessary. They would no sooner do harm to others than they would punch themselves in the face! If they were to do harm to another, they would feel the pain themselves, so it is out of their own “self-interest” that “right” or “moral” action is taken. Moral codes and rules are for “bad people” who would not naturally do what is right, and must continually fight against their bad tendencies, or for those still developing, and needing a source of moral clarity.   

A very telling and moving demonstration of this is given by the great Russian mystic and spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff, in his classic "Meetings With Remarkable Men". The first man he writes about is his father, an exceptionally developed person in all the higher aspects of humanity, a possessor of a truly "expanded self". His natural morality showed itself when he lost his estate through a natural calamity, and was forced to go into business as a carpenter to support his family. He never could manage to do well in business, and Gurdjieff relates why "Every business that my father carried on for the purpose of making money always went wrong and brought none of the results obtained by others. However, this was not because he was unpractical or lacked mental ability in this field, but only because of one tendency of his. He had an instinctive aversion to deriving personal advantage for himself from the naiveté and bad luck of others".

This is another way of saying "he was unable to serve the wrong needs of himself, or others".   

As the self expands, behavior begins to reflect this change, as does ones internal life. One’s own “selfish” needs and desires, brought to their highest and right potential as a natural consequence of the expanded self, mesh perfectly, in inter-dependent fashion, with the needs and desires of others. Every relationship becomes a win-win experience for both parties. This characterizes the optimum business relationship, the win-win experience for both business and customer. The opposite, win-lose, or even lose-lose, characterizes the relationship that exists between two parties in the state of human interaction called war.

On to Basics Of Business 3

top     Copyright 2002 by Jamie Andreas. All rights Reserved.