Whether you’re trying to justify your own laziness or the actions of someone you love, it is interesting to examine how rhetorically, we develop such justifications for ourselves. Ultimately, excuses are made to protect emotions, however, the excuse has to appeal to logic or it’s utterly useless. If the excuse bares no logical weight, it won’t serve as valid justification to whichever party receives it.
We’ve
all procrastinated, we’ve all covered for a friend, and at some point in time
we’ve all believe our own lies. When I procrastinate, I do it because I feel I
deserve a break. I’ve been working hard, I relatively been keeping up with my
work, and therefore, I should by all rights slack a little. Now, this pacifies
the guilt of not doing what I’m supposed to, but it also serves to make a great
deal of sense. What’s unique is that sometimes we can lie to ourselves better
than anyone else. I’d be the first to say that generally, procrastination is
relatively harmless, but self-justification, is a slippery slope.
It’s
an extrapolation, but if we consider an addict, or an alcoholic. They webs of
lies and justifications for themselves, and at some point the compounded
justifications become a living reality. There’s no way an addict of any sort
can be told they’re wrong, because they’ve told themselves a thousand times
over that they’re right. They’ve logically come to the conclusion that that are
so, and someone else will never change their minds.
Of
course, most addictions spiral based on shame and many factors that I’m sure
anyone that’s taken a psych class could rattle off, but perhaps it’s simply
based in telling ourselves that we are right. I don’t need to finish this paper
now. I deserve this time to myself. We’re always right.
It’s
interesting to consider that we have these kind of rhetorical conversations
with ourselves without even considering the different methods we use to
convince ourselves of our actions. I think it’s more interesting than anything
to consider.
You bring up an interesting point. I have never really thought of self justification like that before. It is interesting to think about how much of an effect these justifications can have on us after a while. People really do start to believe them to the point that they become true which is a scary fact. The idea of the denial that addicts go through is a perfect representation of the effect these justifications have. The reason they are in denial is partly because they justify what they do whether it be drinking alcohol or something else. I really find the "rhetorical conversations" you mention that go on within our heads are very interesting to think about.
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