Against Hypocrisy: Do Unto Others...

A saying that we have deeply internalized, but that we rarely put into practice, is that we must “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A deep statement with great moral and educational weight that, in the moment of truth, becomes one of the many other sayings whose meaning is lost in our actions. Sometimes we are not aware that we are acting with hypocrisy. Maybe it is something innate to the human condition. Maybe we cannot control our inability to open our eyes to something that we do not agree with, but that we later do.

Are human beings hypocritical?

One of the things that I personally cannot stand is hypocrisy, and within that comes this fundamental point. If you do not like people to meddle in your life, why do you do it with other people’s lives?

It is important to keep in mind that human beings are constantly changing. That what seems right to me today may not tomorrow. Today I may want to get married and in a few years I may not. This is acceptable, because we evolve, mature, change. Our experiences shape our lives and modify them. We never stop learning, just as we never stop evolving.

But what happens when I think one thing and immediately do the opposite? This is not evolution, this is not change, nor is it maturing. This is pure hypocrisy. Nobody denies us this option, for we are not tied or obliged to anything. But think about your emotional stability.

If it throws me off balance to deal with hypocritical people, those people themselves must have an endless stream of mixed ideas and nothing clear in their head. This leaves them very unfit to argue and defend their own thoughts and actions.

I do not want this, but I do it

Hypocritical people tend to do things that they would never want others to do. How can anyone think this way? It is rather selfish and impossible. If you do not want people to lie to you, but you yourself lie, you are inevitably going to attract a bunch of lies. It is not just a matter of you not liking them to do it to you, but rather that you are going to attract what you do.

Has it not already been said here that if you are negative, you will attractive the negative, but if you are positive, you will attract all good things? The truth is that the more positive you are, the better everything will go for you. Maybe the fact of doing something that you do not like others to do to you is the result of a time you were hurt in the past , a time when someone did you great harm. But that is going to stop today.

Do not lie and also do not let others lie to you. Do not take responsibility for a lie to later get revenge. Stand up for transparency.

Do not let anyone make you feel bad, and do not do it yourself. Maybe you feel good doing it? If they ruin your day when they do it to you, do not give them a taste of their own medicine.

Surround yourself with positive people, as well as those who are the total opposite of you. It will help you stop doing what you do not like others to do to you. Be nourished by the good people who do not wish ill on anybody and who act coherently.

Get rid of those friends who are really not friends in your life. Never hate, because hatred is something that only you permit. Hatred just attracts suffering to your life and you deserve to be happy.

There are many situations that urge us to do the thing that we do not like. Be it for revenge, out of hatred, or for some other reason. But does that really make you happy? The answer is “no.” How do we change it? As we have seen, if you do not like yourself when you act that way, stop it! Look for positive people who bring good things to your life.

Maintain emotional balance, know yourself, and do not let your life be filled with hypocrisy. Giving them a taste of their own medicine will not make you happy. And what’s more, they will give you a taste of your own, too.

Images courtesy of Duy Huynh and Claudia Tremblay