I Never Lie. I’m Lying.

Tags

beliefs, bible, critical thinking, dispensationalism, facts, fundamentalism, GOP, Politics, psychology, rapture, the big lie, truth

I don’t know what your experience with lying is, but I recall a few things that I’ve learned.

1. Parents tend to look with disfavor at lying and punish accordingly. It is seldom a rewarding experience to be caught in deliberate falsehood.

2. It is exceedingly difficult to never get caught lying. There are simply too many factors to be controlled, and some of them aren’t within your sphere. Again, consequences can be most distasteful.

3. Nowhere is it worse to lie and get caught than as a lawyer. Deliberately ignoring the case that destroys yours in the hopes that neither the opposing counsel nor the judge will come across it is risky. If they do, you have lost all credibility for mostly forever. You may face disciplinary action as well if your actions are deemed egregious.

4. Friends tend to disappear when you are caught lying to them. Honesty is a hallmark of friendship, along  with loyalty, and dependability.

5. Jesus and God seemed mostly opposed to the idea. Enough said.

Therefore, I have continually scratched my head in wonder as I have watched for the past several years as the GOP and its members have lied in the most bold manner imaginable. And have gotten caught at it, and basically haven’t paid a penalty.

A few days ago, I linked you to an article on facts and how they are seemingly unimportant to some folks.  If you didn’t get a chance to read it, or to refresh your memory, studies (many in fact) prove that even when people are presented with incontrovertible facts, they tend to believe what they did before. They in essence, ignore truth.

Sadly the more passionate one is, the more one is inclined to do this. This explains of course quite well such people as teabaggers and the whole Foxy Faux News thing. Conservatives oddly or not so oddly, ignore the facts when presented and apparently truth doesn’t even register. Liberals recognize the facts as such, but apparently argue around them to maintain their original belief.

The GOP, perhaps by hiring some “message” guys and gals learned that they could lie with impunity and still get their point adopted by those who were predisposed to believe their message. I recall a guy, whose name eludes me (he’s been interviewed and participated in public opinion discussions many times), talking about how he helped craft the GOP message. Word choice was critical. Certain words were deliberately chosen to evoke knee jerk responses and favorable images to the listener. This was coupled by having the party in general repeat the key words every chance they could. So there was a blitzkrieg of the phrase. It was eventually picked up by the faithful as truth regardless of the actual facts. (See death panels.)

Now, we have discussed many times what it is about some people that make them susceptible to messages that are illogical and ultimately harm their own economic position and even more so, cut across their supposed “Christianity.” The GOP has been able to delve into that deep place of anxiety, worry, and uncertainty, and present a message, much like biblical fundamentalism, that is simple, complete and “patriotic.”

Marrying fundamentalist notions of biblical literalcy, with patriotism, and with Founding Fathers revisionist history, has proved fruitful for some years now. Positions that seem racist, class oriented, misogynist, and otherwise unjust to the rest of us, are somehow transformed into Constitutionally mandated recipes for being a true Christian and a real citizen.

This is heady stuff, and as the study shows, most hard to combat. No mere presentation of truth will suffice here to dissuade such fervent belief. In fact, the “truth” is really just seen as falsehood and expected from the powers of evil sent by secular devils.

I think that from my reading and experience such types cannot be changed. I recently read a short paper on dispensationalism and the Left Behind series. The author showed, easily of course, the insane and silly biblical analysis that results in this kind of thinking. The very idea of being raptured into the clouds is a simple exegetical misunderstanding of the word apantesis, found in Thess. 4:17.

The author of the Boston Globe article finds that there may be only one effective solution. When the lies are stated, they must be immediately called out. This of course is what Media Matters and various fact checker sites attempt to do, but of course, you wouldn’t know that unless you follow those websites.

Joe Keohane, writing the “facts backfire” article, points to the moderators and interviewers as the place to start. Journalists used to, as a matter of course, know their subject, ask piercing questions, and point out weak arguments. They don’t any more. They appear to think their purpose is to give the interviewee time to make his case without comment.

The author argues that their feet must be put to the fire. There need to be consequences to what one says. Embarrassment on national television is a fine way to start. At least, it will impact the vast middle, who are not either rabidly left or right. They will register the correction, and be wary of such purveyors of untruth in the future.

One thing that was not stated in the article by Mr. Keohane, is that we can insist that our primary educational institutions do a much better job of teaching critical thinking and listening. That cuts neither for or against liberalism or conservatism. It makes everyone better at understanding truth. It helps to mold belief that is based on objective facts rather than “gut” reactions, and perhaps unknown personal bigotries that help support a comfortable worldview.

As to parents perhaps they need spend a bit more time trying to help their children develop such abilities while we await our schools to do their jobs. We need to start somewhere. We must start now. Unless you enjoy living in a nation that gets more and more schizophrenic with each passing year. Your choice.

What’s Up? 07/12/10

Tags

beliefs, death penalty, Election 2012, evolution, fairness, information, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, Sarah Palin, voters, wisdom

It was a so-so weekend. Rained some, didn’t rain some. Watched the soccer final which was awfully boring.

Last night we had a bit of a treat. We located (I think on the science channel) a rerun of the old Cosmos series with Carl Sagan. Carl was one of those heroes of mine. It was weird and fun to see how much astronomy and astrophysics has progressed. Still, he had a wonderful way of explaining difficult subjects that was understandable.

This first piece is scary for sure. More and more people are starting to think that if the stars align correctly, Sarah Palin might be unstoppable. Shudder, and get your passport ready. One person argued, (it might have been Andrew Sullivan–the link is embedded in the link I’m giving you) that she can use the “that woman is an idiot” to her benefit. After all, she can say, look what the so-called intellectuals have done–two wars, a nearly destroyed economy. Maybe just plain old average people like me can do a better job. The National Interest gives a scenario. As I said, keep you passport close at hand.

If you are interested in wisdom as perhaps an abstract entity, then you might want to take a look at the review of Stephen S. Hall’s new book, Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience. Professor of philosophy, A. C. Grayling gives his opinion in an excellent review. More and more science claims to be on the verge of telling us why we are the way we are in every respect. More and more we are, it seems, at the mercy of much that we have little control over.

Along a similar vein, The Chronicle looks at the issue of whether there is a basic instinct for fairness in the human person. Reflecting on how anger seems often triggered by claims of unfairness, it is an interesting proposition. Are we fair minded from birth? Hint: the research involved capuchin monkeys and cucumbers! Now that ought to heighten the anticipation! And they did some tests on humans too!

The first official execution in this country was for an alleged traitor. The second and third were Quakers who had not left as banishing Massachusetts had ordered them to do. (We hadn’t yet got to “freedom of religion” of course). A morbid subject perhaps, but Last Words of the Executed by Robert K. Elder, documents something important that we might learn a great deal from. Read the review at the NYTimes Review of Books.

—“What time is it? I wish you’d hurry up, I want to get to hell in time for dinner.” (John Owens (AKA Bill Booth), executed for murder in Wyoming on March 5, 1886).

When asked where he wanted to be buried, Charles Birger, convicted murderer executed in Illinois on April 19, 1928, joked: “A Catholic cemetery because that’s the last place the devil would look for a Jew.”

Our country is at based in some part on the belief that an informed citizenry will ultimately make the best choice. Given that we have the ability to acquire knowledge better than ever before, many of us wonder why we seem determined to make the worst choices over and over again. The GOP has become expert at exploiting the “know-nothing” by design mentality of their followers. They are first to prove that lies do work.  We might get some answers from political scientists who say recent studies show that people, even when exposed to truth, cling to the misinformation they want to believe in. This is so far the must read of the day.