The Rightness of Being Right -- and Beyond

In these days, when the political Right is the target of righteous opproprium -- and rightly so -- it's also politically incorrect to feel in the right about anything, particularly anything controversial.

Today's political correctness makes "right", wrong.

Let me put a bug in your ear:

"Right" is another way of saying, "of high integrity".

We don't feel right when we are out of integrity.

The problem with, the word, "right", isn't with those who are right.  It's with those who use the word, "right" do things that are wrong and should be left behind, and yet call themselves and their actions, "right".

Such people are mentally unbalanced; their perception is distorted but, to them, seems exactly correct.

They're off-balance and yet they say they feel right about what they're doing, which is half-assed. They don't know what "right" feels like, only that some things are right -- and they take their sense of rightness, from that.

Thus, the word, "right", is degraded by half-assed people.

The word, right, is sometimes used in criticism to disempower someone who is right, in a quarrel:

"You just have to be right, don't you?"

Many people feel it's wrong to be right,
that it's wrong to have high integrity,
which people confuse with being self-righteous
or insufferable.

And they feel it's right to tell someone they're wrong for being right -- except for themselves, who are right to tell someone they're wrong for acting as if they're right, when they are.

Why is it wrong to be right?

One reason: because high integrity makes people of low integrity look bad, and they don't want to look bad.

It's a superficial life. As long as we don't pay any deep or steady attention to the other person, as long as we sufficiently "go through the motions" and rituals of "social lovingness," we can be loving toward each other. But not too deeply. The look is there, but not the depth.

It is these people who object to someone else being right and knowing it. It's unheard of! so arrogant! whom do they think they are! (Notice what you felt, about the word, "whom".)

... and for someone to be right consistently, Well!! That's insufferable!

And so they carefully make sure that not only are they not guilty of being too right, calmly centered in themselves (which feels right), but neither should anyone else feel and act right. We should all be soft and waffly, or at least not be too forceful or direct, lest we hurt someone's feelings or make them feel inadequate.

another half-assed view ...

The true feeling of rightness is a kind of equilibrium, a calm clarity, a balance, an ease, a rest, a poise-in-motion, grace in action, simple directness or even comfortable, whimsical play. Within that equilibrium field of attention, our sense of position is suspended.  It is both stable and dynamically active. It feels right.

The problem is that some people can't distinguish the feeling of "feeling right" from the attitude of "being right" as a way of hardening ones position.

Being Right vs. Hardening Ones Position

To be half-assed and harden ones half-assed position is to be a real pain in the ass. We see that state in incompetent politicians, bureaucrats, and low-level clerks.

At equilibrium (the state of rightness), there's sufficient support from the integrity of things taken into account that there's an easy balance.

Being half-assed is Work!

Being right is easy!

However, those who object to our being and feeling right make it hard on us. Then we get confused about "what's right". If it's wrong to be right, where does that leave us? If we're right, we should feel wrong about being too right, or at least, tentative about it. If things are too clear, something is wrong.

There's an old joke: "Am I being paranoid if they really are out to get me?"
corollary:
"Am I wrong for really being right?"

As common as it is, particularly among politically "liberal" circles, making people "wrong" for being right is wrong.

corollary:
Making politically liberal individuals wrong for being politically liberal is also wrong because, despite the tyranny of "political correctness", being liberal is often right.

That's right. Right.