Hubris and ILP

a friend of mine who pays attention to ILP but doesn’t post
that often, e-mailed me today…and one of his comments was
very interesting… he said that Hubris was running wild on ILP…
and as I am part of ILP, I must assume he also meant me…I am on ILP
and if ILP is full of hubris, then I must also be full of hubris…I cannot say, well,
they made me full of hubris or he doesn’t know what he is talking about,
or any number of ways of escaping responsibility or accountability for my words…

If I am full of hubris, then I must own it and then decide if that is really who
I want to be…and in rereading some of my latest post, yes, yes, I can see it…

the question becomes, now what? do I remain in this state of hubris or do I
do something about it… do I overcome it?

I am who I am, yes, but I can also hold myself to a higher standard and become
a different person… I can become a wiser or kinder or nicer person or become one with
values like hope or love or peace or justice…I am not a fixed, set person…

we change all the time… I am not the person I was at age 20 or 40 or even 60…
we change due to a wide variety of reasons… we change because of economic
or social or political or religious or even personal reasons…I have been happily
married for 25 years… if my wife were to pass, god forbid, that would change
me in a profound and meaningful way…I would become an entirely different person…

my past has, in part, created who I am today, but I am not a victim to the past…
my hearing loss is part of who I am, but I also read a lot, a lot, and I watch sports
a lot, but I used to drink beer, a lot, and I rarely if ever drink anymore…who we
were isn’t an indication of who we are now…

but this becoming who we are requires that we step away, that we see ourselves
in a different light, that we see who we are from a bird’s viewpoint…

the problem with most people is that they view themselves in terms of tree’s
instead of the forest… they have such a close vision of themselves that they
cannot separate enough to see who they are…our vision of who we are is very close,
very tight, a very narrow vision of ourselves… instead, gain some space and begin to see
ourselves, who we are from a distance…as part of the forest, not as an individual tree…

the beginning of wisdom is not saying, I am right and everyone else is wrong…
no, the beginning of wisdom is saying, who am I and what if everything I believe is wrong…
it has nothing to do with others and their beliefs, but everything to do with a
reevaluation of who you are and what values do you hold and why?..

that is the beginning of wisdom…an honest reevaluation of values…
not saying, I am the smartest person on ILP, but what values do I hold
that make me think I am smart?

the path to wisdom is not via hubris but the path of being humble…
humility… not in the biblical manner, but in accepting the fact that I
am not as smart as I think I am… I can still learn something even after all
these years…

wisdom in not in what I know, but in challenging what I know…

Kropotkin