Friday, April 19, 2024


The Center of Self…

October 1, 2008 by  
Filed under News, Weekly Columns

(Akiit.com) The improper handling of Emotion does not allow us to grow beyond Self.” — The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

The intrinsic problem with many people in this land of plenty is selfishness.

We can trace nearly every difficulty in every arena to someone’s selfishness or self-centeredness.

Society’s racism, for example, is based on the white privileged class wanting to hold on to what they believe is their birthright. In order to justify that, they must make the lower economic whites believe that Blacks are inferior and somehow to blame for their condition.

Of course anyone with a working brain realizes that racism is a manufactured construct and that the difficulties are created more by divergences in economy rather than divergences in races.

And our own internal racism, manifest in sellout House Niggers, is based on selfish Negroes who have decided that they will pander to racist ideologies to further their own interests. For example, coon comedians who tell Nigger jokes to entertain whites and buck dancing rappers all sell their own souls and the image of their people for a couple of coins.

Another glaring example of the pathology of selfishness can be found in politics. Why anyone would join the Republican Party based on the party’s protection of the wealthy and still claim to be connected to God is beyond me. My position is and has always been that I am willing to pay more than those below my economic status when it comes to sustaining our society.

However, there are a number of selfish assholes proclaiming that they oppose Barack Obama for president for no other reason than he plans to cut taxes for everyone below $200,000. Well, dammit if you earn above $200,000, why wouldn’t you want those below you to be better off? That goes directly against the lies America tells other nations about how it gets down here and against the lies Americans tell each other about believing in God.

And, speaking of God where religion is concerned, it is pure selfishness for people to believe that everyone has to be on the same page. If you believe one thing and I believe another, you are being self-centered to imagine that you are right and I am wrong.

We could both be wrong or both right, but that is God’s decision, not yours.

The selfish are afraid to stand alone and unable to grow beyond pre-adolescent status.

According to John Dewey, “the self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.”

But for some of us, there is no continuous formation and no choice of action.

And, we see the pre-adolescent selfishness rear its ugly head in relationships, where some people actually believe establishing a relationship means finding someone to give them everything they want.

I dated one selfish woman who was so oblivious that she actually said to me: “Things would work out just fine if you give me everything I ask for.”

She couldn’t see how selfish she was being. Her self-centeredness was so pathological that she actually imagined that it would be a privilege for someone to give her everything and receive little or nothing in return.

The self-centered are typically unable to properly handle their emotions.

According to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, “the improper handling of Emotion does not allow us to grow beyond Self. It makes our reasoning subjective and clouds our judgements of individuals, circumstances, and events. It makes us judge individuals, circumstances, and events by how we are affected personally, thus we never see the bigger picture. Improper handling of Emotion makes us judge selfishly.”

This is why the self-centered typically are unable to maintain relationships. It’s difficult to find another human being who will continue to deliver wants and needs when the delivery is on a one way street.

The real center of self should be a concern for others. A concern for their well being and a concern for their opinion.

Yet, the truly self-centered care little about others and value no opinion save their own, which is always overly self-aggrandizing.

If you are truly great, the message of greatness will come from outside of you. Typically, when the message of greatness comes from inside, it is a lie perpetrated to stave off fear. It is not self-confidence.

At the center of self is where we should find our own hopes and fears. It is where we should face our failures and foibles as well as our triumphs and disasters.

But those of who are self-centered face nothing and find nothing. Those who are self-centered want the world to look at them in a false image, because the self-centered person is afraid to look at the self.

Really, selfish people are just weak and afraid.

According to Baba Hari Dass, “the small mind is self-centered and focuses only on itself. It is compulsive, limited, reactive and mechanical. Small mind feeds on itself–fear reacts to fear, judgment reacts to judgment, anger sparks more anger.”

It doesn’t take bravery or foresight or anything beautiful to be self-centered, because a self that garners external messages of greatness has been formed and forged in the fires of life.

Are you self-centered or growing at the center of self?

Written By Darryl James


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