It is
the naive that tell you 'to be yourself'. The premise of this advice is naiveté
at its worst. Because it assumes that all humans are the good guys. The
reality, though, is that we are not all good guys. Telling a terrorist to be
himself, an axe murderer to be herself, an anti-Semitic mass shooter to be
himself, a pedophile to be himself, is not good for the overall well-being of
the human race.
Dictators,
nuclear weapons scientists, drug barons, child traffickers are being themselves
as well as astronauts and missionary doctors and kindergarten teachers. The
blanket statement ‘be yourself’ is a loaded weapon, capable of immense good or
of unthinkable disaster.
The
solution then, is to tell the human race to be the good version of themselves.
Or be someone else other than their evil selves. For if the devil were to get
hold of that advice and take it seriously, we'd all be in trouble.
On
second thoughts, I think he has.
