Hypocrisy is one of the deadliest and most frequently used weapons in the Shadow’s arsenal. Hypocrisy is the projection of one’s own Shadow material onto others, pure and simple.
If we howl loudly about something someone else is doing, they may not have time to notice that we’re doing the same thing, or worse. It sounds childish — it is childish — yet it happens all the time.
The people who absolutely refuse to wear face masks or be vaccinated during an epidemic because it would infringe on their personal freedom — when doing so would save lives and protect others — are the very same people who feel they have a right to tell women what to do about family planning. To tell people what gender they must exhibit. To tell people which books they can read. To tell people what version of history should be taught in schools (because what actually happened makes them feel bad). To overturn elections when they don’t like the results.
The people in the USA who invariably howl the loudest about “freedom” and “democracy” are the very same ones who want to take freedom and democracy away from anyone who disagrees with them. They’re authoritarian bullies who don’t really believe in democracy at all. What they actually believe in is getting their own way. In telling others what to do. In power.
Slapping down someone else’s idea NO! while simultaneously feeling you have a right to tell them what to do is a holdover from the Patriarchal Age. You can’t make me wear a mask in an epidemic! But I can tell you what to do with your whole body, all the time.
Joseph Campbell would’ve called that a function of Old Testament thinking, and it is not even close to our modern idea of democracy. Bossy edicts from on high worked 4,000 years ago in the Near East (although they did lead to slaughter after slaughter). But this is the United States of America, in 2022. We ought to know better by now.
Alas. The Shadow of our beloved “personal freedom” is still trying to shackle other people. And it has from our very earliest beginnings.