Duplicity & Cheating.

Human relationships are endlessly fascinating. We all have so many different motivations & ways of behaving. I sometimes wonder how well we understand ourselves & our own behaviour. But introspection is possibly not common to all. Many people simply react, emotionally, or just in their own best interest, regardless of the impact on others. If that were not true we wouldn't have wars. In order to be prepared to fight you have to be able to "other" the people you fight with. You can't see them as human beings.

Similarly in disagreements. If you can't accept that the person you disagree with has a right to their opinion, or possibly even a valid point, then you are arrogantly "othering" them. 

Duplicity is deceitful behaviour, speech or thoughts. Saying or doing one thing to one person & something different to another. It is "contradictory doubleness" of intent. In simple terms it is being "two faced". Cheating is deceptive actions to gain an unfair advantage. In relationships it is infidelity, not necessarily sexual, emotional too.

The older I get, the more I believe that we need to be more open & honest in our dealings with eachother. It seems to me that people are becoming more & more dogmatic about their beliefs & end up in "bunkers", often religious ones. Religion generally has a lot to answer for. But more & more, our behaviour & beliefs are being determined by the press, the media & social media. They are the new "religions".

  

How did we get to this point? I think that it started in 1979 when Thatcher came to power in the UK & Reagan followed in America in 1981. Thatcher was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. She presided over a social revolution in which nationally owned industries were privatised and the welfare state was drastically reduced in size. She famously said "they (people) are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families".

To my mind, that gave rise to the instant gratification, self centred, outlook we see so prevalent today. People are social animals. We need to find a way of working together for the good of all. There needs to be fairness & real justice, not the sham democracy we accept today. Everyone for themselves, if not checked, will lead to the complete breakdown of society as I have known it.