Читать книгу The Power of Narrative Intelligence. Enhancing your mind’s potential. The art of understanding, influencing and acting - Арсен Аветисов - Страница 15

When you point your index finger at someone else,

the other three fingers point at you. ― Anonymous

The unique ability to justify oneself and transfer responsibility to the surroundings has been around since the beginning of time, since the origin of man. The most famous story about this tells how the fruit of the tree of knowledge was secretly eaten in the well-known garden in Mesopotamia. Already in this story, humanity tries not to notice important details that affect the essence and immediately focuses on the ending and characters.

But the details speak a lot. First, Adam had certain duties to perform in the garden. Not picking or eating the fruit of the Tree of knowledge was just a condition of stay.

The second important detail is that after the incident, he tried to hide.

And the third – when asked why he disobeyed God, he answered literally the following: ‘The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.’

The classic method of transferring responsibility first to the surroundings – Eve, and then higher – to God himself. Eve has the same method as her husband: ‘The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.’

That was all the Creator heard. No, not confession or remorse. But a justification of their actions, an attempt to explain…

Every day we hear hundreds of such responses – at work, at home, on TV, everywhere.

This is the only thing we were allowed to take away from Paradise – our ability to be seduced and then make our excuses and shift responsibility.

The story of the Garden of Eden is a story of abdication of responsibility.