This word, \u201cdeffil,\u201d describes a complex in the psyche that seems innocent and blame-free, at one level; at another level, this same complex may be recognized as foolish and naive; and at a third level, deffils in the long run have a thousand times more aggregate power to generate evil than clever, wicked, sociopathic, scheming, manipulative devils.<\/p>\n
The deffil of course is not an external power, but the power of the residual inner child. Played with a little intensity, some might call this complex an \u201cinner brat.\u201d It is the seeming innocence of childish expectations that deny the actuality of the complexities of the real world.<\/p>\n
One deffil might be the voice that sweetly and innocently\u2014or perhaps with a little pout\u2014protests, \u201cWhy does it have to be that way?\u201d It \u201ccan\u2019t\u201d (or wont) recognize that life is difficult. Scott Peck\u2019s opening line to his best-selling book in the 1980s?, \u201cThe Road Less Traveled\u201d is \u201cLife is difficult.\u201d It\u2019s obvious on one level, but many people really have not absorbed its implications.<\/p>\n
The desire to make life less difficult is one of the sources of creativity in the world, but it requires first an acceptance of the idea that a given situation is indeed difficult. There is a short-cut process in the mind that says, \u201cOh, that\u2019s just the way it is; can\u2019t do anything about it\u201d that numbs the creative impulse. The tendency to accept \u201cthe way it is\u201d is another deffil.<\/p>\n
Yet another deffil is a hidden sense of entitlement to life being easy. It is disguised as a seemingly innocent question: \u201cWhy does life have to be difficult?\u201d By asking a question, the underlying protest is denied: \u201cI don\u2019t want this situation to be so complicated.\u201d Too obviously foolish: Disguising folly is part of what deffils do.<\/p>\n
This whole process is amplified in the mid-20th century among those raised in relative affluence. (Perhaps we should say \u201cspoiled rotten,\u201d but the idea of what is involved in \u201cspoiling\u201d is too often misunderstood and misused.) Anyway, there is not yet an alertness to the more-than-foolishness that inheres in feelings of entitlement.<\/p>\n
The deffil of the entitlement to simplicity and ease is a particular affliction of the spoiled affluent mid-20th century populace. And part of that difficulty is not just in the realities of work to be done, but the reality also that things are far more complex than simple minds want to admit. It\u2019s nobody\u2019s fault\u2014it really is complicated, and multi-perspectival<\/em>\u2014a big word that means that there\u2019s no one truth as a formula, but everything is to be looked at from multiple perspectives.<\/p>\n (I hear a subtle voice of protest: \u201cYikes, it wasn\u2019t that way when I grew up. We had right and wrong answers. Our grades were predicated on our knowing right answers. Did they lie to us?\u201d and then I hear, \u201cYes, they did indeed lie. Life is not only more complex, but for much of life right and wrong answers don\u2019t apply!\u201d)<\/p>\n The thing about deffils is that those in their grip feel quite innocent, almost wide-eyed, child-like, sweet. They tempt us to almost whine, \u201cBut why can\u2019t life be nice?\u201d\u00a0 Why-questions often disguise a more bratty pout: \u201cI resent that life isn\u2019t always nice.\u201d It\u2019s often paired with another seductive complex\u2014\u201cIt isn\u2019t fair!\u201d<\/p>\n The deffil can pretend to be a victim when really it is disguising a tyrannical, egocentric attitude.\u00a0 For example, imagine a five-year-old who feels that any game in which she is not the winner is \u201cnot fair.\u201d Really, it can seem that way at an unconscious level. Entitlement and fairness can be distorted with surprising ease in the direction of egocentricity. And if something \u201cfeels\u201d unfair, then it\u2019s only a short hop to it actually \u201cbeing\u201d unfair\u2014at least in the illusory world of the child\u2019s mind. My subversive suggestion here is that far more than anyone wants to admit, the adult mind retains powerful and subtle residues of childish attitudes.<\/p>\n Another deffil involves the childish trust of the blandishments and all the rhetorical devices and logical fallacies used by demagogues\u2014religious and political\u2014that in turn allows it to become fanatical in the service of socially problematic movements. \u201cBut they said it was good!\u201d seems to serve well as a form of self-justification. The obligation for personal critical evaluation doesn\u2019t exists\u2014and the lack of such skills in the general population, and the lack of the teaching of such skills\u2014clearly indicating their value\u2014also reinforces this.\u00a0\u00a0 (Okay, more about deffils in a blog tomorrow.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This word, \u201cdeffil,\u201d describes a complex in the psyche that seems innocent and blame-free, at one level; at another level, this same complex may be recognized as foolish and naive; and at a third level, deffils in the long run have a thousand times more aggregate power to generate evil than clever, wicked, sociopathic, scheming, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-follies","category-literacy","category-wisdom-ing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}