h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the thread ‘The Principle of a Principle’ I’ve been speaking of principles. The name of the thread alludes to the fact that not many people understand what a principle is or what it is for – in short, they don’t understand the principle of a principle. A principle is an important law or concept in a system of thought, or a standard according to which one behaves – those are the two meanings I’m referring to here. I will come later to the meaning of principle in terms of systems of thought – for now, I’d like to speak of a principle in the sense of being a guiding standard for behaviour.

I’ve been speaking of Apartheid, and the principles involved there, are those relating to how you should treat other people, and how you should view them. The funny thing is that we have had the right principle all along as part of our religion: do unto others as you would want them to do unto you; love others as yourself. We never properly understood or applied that principle, though. Today it seems to me we still don’t.

So maybe, flowing from that discussion, it might help if I discuss principles in a bit more detail. First of all, understand that I am speaking from what I’ve learnt with my own particular background. This includes growing up in the days of High Apartheid, and then experiencing the transition to the new supposedly ‘free’ South Africa. I have seen mistakes, often awful ones, being committed by all sides, and I’ve seen the awful consequences of what at the time looked like minor mistakes.

Then there’s my involvement with plants, animals, wildlife and nature. This has massively influenced my views where the environment and non-human beings are concerned.

Then there’s my personal struggle with paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoia is an awful condition where you’re unable to trust anyone, quick to believe the worst of others, and also finding it very difficult to separate fantasy from reality. Getting over this has been a major struggle of my adult life. You will have to judge for yourself to what extent I’ve succeeded with this or not. But the fact is, that this has played a very large role in my views. I think that having had no choice but doing my damnedest to overcome my paranoia, has in fact ultimately been beneficial to me.

So: my principles have grown from my own personal life. Thus they are not applicable to everybody just like that. But you know what – maybe that in itself can be seen as a principle! Principle Number One: principles can be personal. It is not necessary that everyone should act according to the same principles.

Your own personal sets of principles should reflect your deepest values and everything you have learnt in your life. These should therefore change as you learn even more. So another principle is that principles should not be carved in stone. Some will be more rigid than others, though. There are some principles so important that they could be considered for all purposes universal and eternal. Something really radical would need to come up to properly challenge them. You don’t abandon them unless there is a profoundly compelling reason. For instance the principle of not killing other people. I would argue that this should be a pretty powerful and universal principle.

Principles are therefore rules by which you live your life. Personal principles are the rules you’ve figured out for yourself. You might decide to be stricter with yourself than you expect other people to be with themselves. You might have things that you yourself would never do, that nevertheless, you feel others might allow themselves to do. I have many personal rules that I won’t expect other people to obey. For instance I don’t eat meat or drink any alcohol, but I don’t expect other people to do the same. How strict you are with yourself is something you would work out over the course of your life. You need to figure out what your own weaknesses are, what things cause you harm, what things are most important to you, what things might distract you from the more important things, what things you are capable of, what things do you good, what your potential is, what things that you can do are of most benefit to others … in short, your own journey of personal growth. From this you will learn what your own personal principles should be. But you need to pay attention. You need to periodically review your life and what you are doing. You need to think about things. It also helps if you would consult with others who can give you a perspective outside of your own.

When devising principles for yourself you must also be kind and loving to yourself. You must not be too hard on yourself and expect too much. Your principles should challenge you, should set a standard towards which you aspire. They should not make you feel worthless because you always find yourself transgressing against them or coming up short. Find principles that are realistic for you. For instance, if you have the principle that you should keep your promises, then you should think about whether you could keep a certain promise before you make it. If you keep making promises and then breaking them, the act of promising loses its value and meaning with respect to you. But if you do this right, then you can act according to your principles again and again and again – in other words you can be successful in acting according to your principles. Then these principles become a habit, a thing that you come to expect of yourself all of the time, your own standard of achievement that you can achieve over and over again, reliably, and instead of disappointing yourself, you are pleasing and proving yourself. Your principles become a strong habit, and when it becomes crunchtime – when you find yourself in a situation where your principles, your character, really get tested – the fact that it has become an ingrained habit, the fact that you have exercised yourself in them, makes it more likely that your principles will carry you through this situation without cracking.

For some people what I say might seem obvious, but from experience it seems to me that many people don’t even understand these basics of personal principles. The thing is we all have principles. Many of us don’t know it, though, or know where these principles come from. Many of us just accept principles that are thrust on us by our situations, by outside factors. Many of us have principles that are based on crude self-interest. Many of us who have those sort of principles don’t understand them or where they come from or why they are what they are and also don’t have control over them. When you understand what principles are and you start examining yourself and you find what your own true principles are, what the real factors are that are guiding your thoughts, your words, and your deeds, then you start getting in charge of your own life. Then you take responsibility for molding your own character. Anyone can do this, and anyone who does this, is on the path towards becoming a fully-realised human being. By fully-realised human being I mean a person who is truly aware, free and responsible, rather than a person who is mainly moved by factors outside him or herself, easily misled and exploited, and very unaware of his or her own true inner nature and potential. Such a person is like a seed that has not yet germinated. Pretty much all seeds can germinate … which is to say, anyone, whatever their current situation, can learn to understand and function at a much higher level.

Part Two to follow soon.

Amen, brother. That's some mighty good thinking you've got going on. (You're right, by the way: the struggle to figure out what reality everybody else is living in is such a monumental one that when you're done, your grey matter has muscles on its muscles.)

I'd like to add that, when deciding on personal principles, the saying of Jesus applies: 'Don't try to take the dust out of the other guy's eye until you've taken the log out of yours.' In other words, don't make up rules for other people.

More than one person has said a strange thing to me: 'That person didn't know it, but he/she failed my private test.'

Er... Other people aren't there to pass our tests. So I appreciate what you said about not expecting other people to do what's good for you.

Great series Willem. No wonder philosophers said know yourself. I think that you have become more of a philosopher because of your illness. In order to come to terms with reality -you've already had to fight off those wooden nickels of everyone elses lazy thoughts that you previously bought into. This gave you the mental fitness and strength to withstand those and other bogus 'ideas' that are floating around in South Africa as well as all the global nonsense. I love your series and am looking forward the next part when you have time!

Thank you Dmitri and Elektra. Writing the Apartheid history piece has given me a lot of confidence. I'm going to try and see this principles series through as well. I've learnt a number of things through some extremely painful and traumatic experiences and I really think it could be of value to others. This is all geared to a better understanding of human psychology from which even people who consider themselves 'OK' can benefit, in my view. And also I think these principles can make the world a better place. Also I want to give people COURAGE to help them function better, to improve their relationships with others, and be happier. I think I can do all that. At least I'm going to try.

Well South Africa is such a complicated place linguistacally and politically it is really good to have a native guide to what is going on there. With all the different cultures and mind sets going on all at once it is a wonder it functions at all! Naturally the world press simplifies things to the point of falsifying them because there wouldn't be enough space to put the situation into proper context. Actually delusional systems are clung to as a life line---precisely because they are simpler and don't require people to keep their neighbours in mind.