The Expressive Ego

Written by Mathew Naismith

Note: I think this post is important for a lot of people to read right through, if you are active on forum sites in particular, this post  just might help you to communicate with others a little better; it’s certainly worth a try anyway.

We can look at the ego and judged it being whatever we want to see it as, but of course to judge the ego to start with is to also be expressive of the ego, it’s like the ego is in judgement of the ego, what else could judge the ego being bad or good?  There is of course is nothing else but the ego!!

Recently I was on a sight, which I have been a member on for a number of years now; that certain people on this site kept saying wrong, this was wrong that was wrong. At one stage, any post or link supporting a post that these people disagreed with was deemed as wrong in any way they could think up. This is the clincher, if anyone mentioned that these people, who were clearly expressive of one of the most destructive ego traits, were making it personal, they denied it and clearly went on about how wrong it was to say that they were being personal.  In turn it wasn’t the people who were being expressive of the word wrong so much that had an ego issue but the people who were on the receiving end of this egotistical expression. What a funny turn around but what was even funnier was the expression of wrong was used while discussing a thread about honesty and dishonesty within spirituality. These people, who were obviously being expressive of one of the most destructive traits of the ego, turned everything around to suite themselves; honesty wasn’t a part of the discussion at all it would seem.  

I believe the ego can be positive and or negative within it’s expressions, it’s really not necessary if you agree with this or not at the moment.  Expressing a wrong in anyone, including yourself, is being expressive of one of the most destructive traits of the ego so in turn all it will do is destroy.  That is exactly what this expression did within this discussion about honesty and dishonesty.

One of the first posts posted, in reply to this thread about honesty and dishonesty within spirituality, was explicitly expressive of the destructive ego expression wrong but also the thread was deemed as being dishonest. Now this reply wasn’t deemed by the repliers of this thread to be personal.  

The ego is of the personal self, it’s not of the collective self, it is personal so any expression of the ego, either it be negative or positive, is obviously personal.  These people, who were so expressive of the destructive trait of the ego, were in total denial of making the conversation personal. We must remember here that the discussion was about honesty and dishonesty, why did these people express so much displeasure in discussing such a topic in the first place and why act so destructively?  

They were in total denial that they were being so expressive of such a destructive trait, in other words they were lying to themselves. This is a good enough reason for the negative destructive ego to go on the defensive, which it did, by expressing itself in the only defensive way it can by being even more expressive of the destructive negative ego. Their ego was in total disagreement with anything they saw as being wrong so they reacted accordingly to their ego trait.

At the same time I was having this discussion on this site, I was having another discussion on another site with another person, and we disagreed with each other’s view. At no time was the expression of wrong, or anything like it, ever expressed between the two of us , the discussion went along quite smoothly but why the difference? These two discussions were still expressive of the ego therefore personal however the big difference was one was being expressive of the negative ego and the other the positive ego. Even though the ego is personal, no matter what, the positive expressive trait of the ego wasn’t personal as such but the negative expressive trait of the ego obviously was.  When a discussion becomes truly personal, that is a good sign that the negative expressive trait of the ego is in control.

Now you could say I am in judgement here, which is of course judged by a lot of people as being bad in some way, ego judging the ego as being bad.  Because the ego can be expressive of either the negative or positive traits of the ego or both, judgment is also of this value, it can also be negative (destructive) or positive (constructive) or of course both.  This is of course because judgement is of the ego.  I might be wrong….whoops, not entirely right in being in judgment of others but at least I’ve been constructive of my expressions.  This is something we have very rarely practiced in human history, using the ego positively instead of negatively.  Why jump the gun and just judge the ego as just being bad when we haven’t experienced and lived in a world mostly influenced by the positive ego?  Before totally judging the ego as just bad, why not give the other side of the ego a chance to prove itself first!!