To Thine Own Self be True
Shakespeare's advice “Above things, to thine
own self be true”, has rarely been more misunderstood or so needed as now. Many
people have lost site of their own characters. They have so cut themselves off
from their own likes and dislikes and their own real feelings that they like what
they think they should like and feel what the think they should feel. If all your
friends say they enjoyed a particular movie, particularly a ‘deep’ and difficult
to understand one, are you going to admit that you found the whole thing rather
tedious? And if you don't admit it to your friends are you going to admit it to
yourself?
What is worse than prejudice is to persuade yourself that you aren't prejudice
when you are. Prejudice is a disservice to other people; the other is a disservice
to yourself. And if you cut yourself off from your real feeling they are likely
to surface in a more destructive way. It’s sometimes said that those who shout
loudest about something are the most guilty. I've seen myself people who are strong
campaigners against racial prejudice who are blindly prejudiced against, for example,
gun owners. Often without personally knowing a single gun owner. It’s very common
for people, and this seems particularly to apply to women, to make statements
such as “I am perfectly content in myself”. I found many times that when you get
to know such people that this is far from the truth. They say such platitudes
in order to convince themselves that it’s true. If you shout that you are content,
or are not prejudiced, or are compassionate, then you can convince yourself that
that is the case. Such people also seek comfort in those with similar views so
that they can reinforce each other’s world-view.
Political correctness has turned this into a movement. The political correct lobby tells us that we should not trust our feelings as these may be based on inaccurate assumptions, and that we should treat everyone the same. If someone has proved themselves unreliable should I rely on them in a critical situation? And what if I feel that someone is unreliable? This feeling may be a prejudice but it may be based on intuition. Like learning to walk we may stumble, and make wrong guesses but without having the freedom to explore our own feelings we become no more than walking automata. The fate of many people in the West.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
William Shakespeare
