People of the Lie

Today I began reading a book title "People of the Lie" by Scott Peck. I have to admit that in preparing myself to read this book I did not expect to encounter much of an interesting topic, but this guy seemed to captivate my mind as a continued to read through page by page unable to stop. This title "People of the Lie" is referring to those people who are in essence a reflection of human evil. A biblical example of this human evil that Peck is talking about in his book is the Pharisees in the New Testament. The Pharisees had become a group of intelectual pompous religious gurus that thought they had it all together, and apart from themselves there was no one of equal stature. This sets up the perfect example for what Peck is trying to explain to his readers. In his book Peck encounters a family of four, two sons, the mother and a father. The eldest son had previously committed suicide leaving them with no evidence as to what it was that drove him to do such an act. Well, life goes on of course, but the parents didn't assume anything to be wrong with their other son, assuming that through this whole traumatic experience he'll work things out for himself just fine. With this uneducated mindset the parents found no harm in giving their other son the gun that his brother had killed himself with for Christmas. Insane,... Right? I couldn't wrap my mind around this. Well, the parents didn't have enough money to buy him an actual present for Christmas, so they thought that he might want a gun, and the gun they had was the one their other son had committed suicide with. Not much thinking there, right? Just as the author posed that he was rather uncomfortable hearing this from the kid, I found it completely insane reading it. The implicit message they were sending to their other son was that he wasn't worht much and that he could go kill himself like his brother did. Does this not cross a person's mind in the least bit?
Peck considers these parents to fall into the category or diagnosis of human evil. Peck is really pressing the point in this book that evil should be another diagnosis for mental illness, just as bipolar and obessive compulsive are. These "people of the lie" have so far lied to themselves that they believe of themselves to be good people, this would be considered narsissitic tendencies. These people are in love with themselve to the point that they don't understand self-reflection to be of any benefit, they believe themselves to have everything within them to do right and be what is needed. Although these people lack the desire within themselves to do good, they do however desire to look good to people. The essence of human evil is found directly in a persons inability to cope with their sinful nature in an attempt to escape the reality of themselves being flawed. These kind of people have ingrained so far within their being the instinct to excape guilt that they no longer can acknowledge the existence of any such feeling. Human evil lacks the ability to relate to people on an emotional level. The root of this evil is directed from a sense of pride in oneself in an act of narsissism.
I really enjoyed Peck revealing his conception of Psychological gargolyism as he puts it. Gargoyles were created in the early church to be evil creatures that warded off greater evil from entering in. In this comparison Peck expresses that often times children act out in evil ways because their parents are evil. They are simply acting out in such ways to protect themselves from their parents. This is the case with the parents of the two boys. According to society the young boy acting out needs the psycological work, but really the root of the problem lies in the parents inablity to see the flaws in themselves, creating within them the presence of evil. This evil is what triggers the boy to act in such heinous acts. Interesting idea.
Lastly, Peck finishes chapter two by expressing that there are two options that we have in life. People long to have this freedom they talk about, but really there is no true freedom as Peck explains. You must choose either to be enslaved by a higher power than your own, or furhter be enslaved by your own self. As Christ said, "you must give up your life in order to gain it".