Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy, noun-a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel; the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion our conventional morality often serves as a cover for hypocrisy and selfishness—Lucius Garvin

I've been thinking about the word hypocrisy especially with all of the postings about Charlie Kirk wh should not have been shot at and killed. This is a crime.

But I also want to say that Mr. Kirk's beliefs and those whose beliefs are similar, continue to lead to the destruction of the US and possibly the world. There is no doubt about this in my mind. Talk of him being a martyr, building statues, flags flying at half-mast, having moments of silence especially for Mr. Kirk are hypocrisy.

Nearly 47,000 people died of gun-related injuries in the United States in 2023, according to the latest available statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Do we have moments of silence for all of these people? (Are we as concerned about their family members?) If we did, we probably wouldn't be doing much during our day except observing moments of silence.   Shouldn’t the flag be flown at half-mast for all of these people which would mean that the flag would never be raised.

We should be outraged that a person can shoot another person but the fact remains that the United States continues to have one of the highest rates of civilian gun ownership globally, with an estimated number of privately owned firearms to be about 533 million which is about 1.55 guns/person[1].   

We all should condemn violence but the fact of the matter is that human beings will always be violent towards one another because we are extremely tribal. What is happening to Gazan civilians is horrible. Are we condemning that and saying that there shouldn’t be any violence? What we are doing as a country is providing weapons for killing people. What about the people of Ukraine, wasn’t peace promised? There are many more examples of violence. Would we say that the Revolutionary War should never have occurred, that the Civil War in the US shouldn't have happened, that we shouldn't have stopped Germany during WWII, although we did enter this late and only after we were attacked. And these are just examples in the US.

We all need to look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves. Instead, we lie, provide our own rationale as to why we want things a certain way, engage our individual egos and our narcissistic tendencies. Does individual authenticity matter?

Yesterday, September 11 was a difficult day for most Americans. We all are connected to what happened, i.e. the attack against the US. Is killing innocents who happened to be in the Twin Towers and other places that were attacked just? Certainly not, but neither is what happened with killing innocents during the Vietnam War or those in Gaza or Rwanda and everywhere else where people are persecuted for who they are. China, India, Russia to name a few countries, are horrible examples of persecuting and killing innocents. The hypocrisy is as thick as the blood in our bodies.

What about the 47,000 people who die every year from gun violence in the US, the children who will never become adults. None of it makes sense to me when I think about it but this will not stop, no matter what any of us think.  We tend to speak up but what changes and why do we need to fight so hard for what we know in our souls is right?

We need to be "real" with ourselves, look in the mirror and really try to understand our own biases, prejudices and why we feel and think the way that we do. I can admit to myself that I'm just as guilty as anybody else in not looking in the mirror enough.  My own “self-righteousness” comes through more than I like.

We are all hypocritical.  It tends to come and go but we don’t seem to be consistent in who we are and/or through our actions.  My hope is that if we can progress as a species, we will be less hypocritical and more authentic in who we are, what we profess and our actions to support this.