A Fallacy in Personal Responsibility: Part III. (A Public Letter and Reflection.)

**Dear[est] Grimmi:** I was moved to hear you read about my Sun Sign. Maybe this will help you understand the basic mindset typical of it.

The simplest summary of Pisces as perspective is the most self-evident: the interpenetration and interdependence of all beings. I am as responsible for those around me and for their well-being as I am for mine, and, so, “in turn”, the Other is responsible for my well-being every bit as much as I am.


If the Other acts in such a way that harms me, I may bear the guilt and shame for that transgression, since I’d rather be inclined to feel the Other’s feelings of revulsion rather than to shut them out. Yet it is not the Truth that this is just, since I am only made to feel this same revulsion since the Other chooses me to be the scapegoat when I’ve been the victim, so as not to recognize his own transgression.


This refusal to admit of one’s own moral failings is the source of that “philosophy” that says, “Take care of *your* self first.” It is delusional, since one’s well-being always is dependent utterly upon the actions of one’s fellows, and, in fact, one cannot prosper without knowing that *they* prosper, since it’s *through* the health of others that I can experience my own.

Although I am a sponge, abused and made to suck up all the hatred and hostility which comes of a bad conscience, I can leastwise find some comfort in remembering that, given scientific fact, (that we are all dependent animals and individuality does not exist) I’m not the only, nor the foremost, author of my sorrow; those who take no care of me cannot condemn me that I take none of myself, while those that I take care of I can judge with greater objectivity regarding their self-care, and I’m entitled to receiving such compassion in return.


(It also follows from this that delusions such as “independence” offer no relief from suffering, since they are utterly divorced from scientific fact as well as feeling and morality.)


In short: the point of view of “Pisces” is a basic summary of sanity, though this is undermined by various insidious devices such as “egoism” and “self-interest” or “boundaries”, all poisons meant to undermine and to obscure Reality: that I and Other are a common substance, and that Good is recognition of this commonality, while Evil is unnecessary harm resulting from the failure of this recognition.

[What one has to learn, I’ll add, is how to deal with the complexities of those who fail to recognize this underlying Truth. My individuality may be illusory, yet it is nonetheless a part of that Reality I have to live with, only since it’s part of those same feelings I absorb from Others. Given that this is my day-to-day experience, however, I’m accustomed to it, and I hope you can accept it, too.]


**[({R.G.)}]** @Grimmi🕯#6326 

  
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