Delusion: A false belief or judgement about external reality, held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, as a symptom of serious mental illness.
From The Big Book: "We learned that we had to concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed."
Okay, then.
Here's food for thought. If a tsunami kills thousands of people in India it's hard to assess blame for the disaster. We're sad for the loss of life but no one did anything to anyone else. There's no one to go after and punish. But if a terrorist explodes a bomb in a public place and kills hundreds of people it's easy to assess blame and it's easier yet to gin up enough outrage to go after the perpetrators to exact revenge. The interesting thing is that there was a large loss of life in both cases. So what's the difference? One was not preventable - or not as easily preventable, at least - and the other was? It makes me ponder the motivation behind my behavior in the world today. Am I nice or a shithead contingent on some internal sense of how things should work, of what is right or wrong, or am I looking to seek retribution, to lash out and take my pound of flesh from someone I hold responsible, correctly or incorrectly? I've read that children generate ethics gradually: first, they behave well so they won't get punished; then they behave well even if they realize they won't get caught and punished, that they can probably "get away with it"; and finally they behave well because they've internalized good behavior, they understand intrinsically what good and bad behavior is. They no longer need to be told what bad behavior is - they feel it in their bones.
"Smash the Delusion" would be an excellent stoner Rock tune.
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