Anything is justifiable
If you’ve ever watched summaries of historical events, especially how wars are started, prolonged, and ended, you’ll see that the themes of greed, corruption, and power repeats over and over again. One of the crazier, but unsurprising concepts I learned was manifest destiny—the idea that Americans are destined by god to expand and spread themselves and their values to the rest of the USA. It didn’t matter if they owned the land or if there were people there already, it was the god-given right and they would do whatever it take. Basically, one giant justification for murder and illegal occupation.
Justification of one’s actions dates way back to the ideas of manifest destiny. If we look at the Templar Knight’s crusade for the enslavement of slaves in Egypt, this isn’t anything new. Even if we take the simplest examples in today’s age. If you see someone jaywalking, you’ll do it too because of the justification of “if he did it, I can too”.
The slippery slope is justifying the small things until it escalates into bigger action. By then, you’ll just do whatever you want because you think your action is “correct”. I struggle with this with Youtube whenever I have to do any important task. I tell myself just one more video and then an hour or two passes. If it’s something you can do right away, take advantage of the moment and do it. It’ll build momentum for you to do other important stuff.
Not all bad
I like to use the dangers of justification and invert it into something positive. Whenever I have doubts or lack the inspiration to do anything, I like to use justification to get me started.
I remembered watching high schoolers play basketball when I was in middle school and thinking I’d never be good enough to make the team. They were quick, tall, and knew exactly what play to make to score. It wasn’t until I saw their backup point guard play. Don’t get me wrong, he was really good, but he wasn’t like everyone else. He was shorter and not as quick, but he excelled in other areas that contributed to the team. I told myself that if someone like that can make it on the team, I have no excuses.
It sounds great to be the “first” to do anything—you’re a trailblazer and an inspiration for all. But I encourage people to use other people’s accomplishments to justify their reasoning that the impossible can be achieved.
It doesn’t have to be anything grand or outlandish. Remember that small actions if justified, will eventually escalate to something big. We just have to make sure that it’s positive and not detrimental to us.
That’s how I approach New Year resolutions, with tiny actionable steps so it can compound. One of my goals is to read more books so I could learn more, and I’ve started with just reading for 5 minutes a day. I reasoned that out of 24 hours, I could at least endure 5 minutes of reading. It soon became a habit and I’ve increased the duration to 6 minutes. Again, it’s not a big increase but it’s to establish not only a habit, but an identity—I’m a reader. Once that became my identity, it became easier to justify reading longer.
In Moderation
Don’t think that this is a hack and that you can justify anything you do. Just as easily as you build good habits, you could also start to justify going overboard in your pursuit of doing good actions.
During the prohibition era in the United States, the prohibition party advocated for the ban of alcohol, citing the negative effects on the individual and society. Their intentions started off good but quickly saw that this ban led to the rise of criminal activities of people illegally smuggling and selling alcohol. It led to more deaths and instability of the economy and civilization. Despite the unrest, they doubled down and justified the dangers of alcohol, ignoring the consequences of what was happening around them.
The same can happen for us if we don’t periodically assess our actions and review if it’s still working or not. Justification works well because it feeds our ego and our need to hear how right and correct we are. It gives us legitimacy in our actions and tells us that our concerns are for naught. So when the alarm bells are ringing, we are belligerent to those that reveal the realities to us.
No person fights harder than those fighting to not be wrong. If you are wrong, then the justification is that all of your actions were for nothing. The sunk costs will be too great to bear.
It’s hard to autocorrect by yourself, so make sure you have those around you that can give you honest truths and that you are honest enough to take it in and make the necessary changes. The scales of right and wrong can tip at any point.
At any point that things are going suspiciously too smoothly, it’s time to step back and see what’s going on. It’s when nobody does any questioning that things start to become bad. At that point, anything becomes justifiable.
*Check out my last article on New Year reflections*
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