THE WARNING COMES TRUE
It might be something that happened in one of your classes at school or college. It might have been at one of those training sessions in your job. But whenever or wherever it happened; it went something like this:
You were invited to take part in some form of group discussion, counselling or self awareness session. I say ‘invited’, but you knew that if you didn’t participate, it would go against you. Nothing dramatic, like failing your course or losing your job, but whoever was really in charge would express disappointment and hint that if you weren’t willing to ask questions about yourself, then you had something to hide.
Knowing what the hidden agenda really was, you went along with the group discussion, counselling, self awareness session, or whatever it was called. And that’s where you suffered your first defeat; because by doing so, you conceded that your presence was ‘voluntary’. It wasn’t, of course, but that’s the way these processes work: they quietly seduce you into lying to yourself and to others.
You were now entangled into a conspiracy of acting like somebody other than you truly are. The session pretended to be about frankness; but you knew what you were meant to say, whether you believed in it or not. You were pressed towards the ‘right’ answers by an ‘enabler’, who pretended to be a friend and equal, but was really the boss. If you disagreed with him or her, then words like ‘unhelpful’ would have been used to mark you out as a negative trouble maker.
But you didn’t have to just express and agree with the correct view that the enabler was pushing you towards: you also had to show ’self-
