It's about time.
"Armstrong case reflects lesson about human behavior" by Joseph P. Kahn |
Globe Staff, January 17, 2013
Beginning Thursday, the world gets to hear what disgraced cyclist
Lance Armstrong has to say to Oprah Winfrey about having been found to
cheat his way to the top of his sport — after repeatedly denying pointed
accusations that he’d been illegally blood-doping.
To be followed by looters, lying war criminals, and their mouthpiece media enablers, right?
For the millions expected to watch the two-part interview, taped
earlier this week, any sympathy harbored toward Armstrong as a
world-class athlete and cancer survivor may be overshadowed by one
nagging question: How can someone live with such a lie? And for such a
long period of time, knowing he might be exposed someday?
Why, did his lead to the deaths of millions and the shattering of nations?
Those who study deception professionally do not claim to know the
inner workings of Armstrong’s psyche. Nor do they automatically lump him
with other high-profile figures who have been caught lying despite
repeated denials, from business moguls (Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff) to
con men (Christian Gerhartsreiter, a.k.a. “Clark Rockefeller”), or
those suspected of cheating, such as baseball superstars Barry Bonds and
Roger Clemens, who failed to make the Hall of Fame this year after
being dogged by charges of steroid use.
So Bernie is the poster boy for all that went bad, huh? He was small fry compared to the Wall Street investment houses.
But if these observers are reluctant to judge Armstrong’s capacity
for lying specifically, there are larger truths to be recognized in his
case, they say. One is that human beings lie all the time, in ways big
and small.
Ummm, SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!
Also, that otherwise rational people are often able to
justify their deceptions to the point where living a lie and living a
life are virtually indistinguishable.
Is that how AmeriKan newspaper reporters continue to go to work?
“Like the rest of us who lie, and most of us do in our daily lives,”
says University of Massachusetts psychology professor Robert Feldman,
Armstrong’s apparent deception “is easy to push aside cognitively. For
most people, it won’t eat away at them on a daily basis. We humans are
good at compartmentalizing.”
Now you have me resenting the accusation!
**************************
Armstrong probably slept well at night — although not lately, perhaps
— because he figured out a way to justify the lies, Feldman suggests,
possibly by rationalizing that other elite cyclists were doping, too.
So did George Bush.
And because Armstrong is fiercely competitive by nature, and had much to
lose in money and prestige by being exposed, he took on his accusers
the only way he knew how: all-in and combatively.
Moreover, according to Feldman, Bill Clinton is a prime example of a
public figure who lied to protect himself — by denying he had sexual
relations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky — and later, after
confessing, reclaimed some vestige of his credibility and moral
standing. Clinton is now one of the country’s most admired public
figures, if by no means universally beloved.
He lied about a hell of a lot more than that!
“I like to think people will look at [the Armstrong interview]
through a broader context,” says Feldman, author of “The Liar in Your
Life: The Way to Truthful Relationships,” which focuses on lying and
deception in everyday life.
You don't have to go very far, just down to the local newsstand.
“The reality is, people lie all the time — ‘I love the report you
gave,’ for instance — and tell you what you want to hear. Lance
Armstrong is like the rest of us. He lied in a very public way and got
caught. Most of us lie, and most of us don’t get caught. If others
hadn’t come forward, I’m sure he’d still be living the lie.”
Some have even gotten caught and are still living the lie.
Btw, at this point, I'm JUST PLAIN OFFENDED by the ELITIST INSULT that "we all lie." In fact, I would like to believe that is the reason you are HERE, readers. I DON'T LIE!
Moral philosopher and author Sissela Bok, whose books include “Lying:
Moral Choice in Public and Private Life,” agrees that lying is
prevalent throughout this society and others, often starting with small
steps and at a young age. Step by step, the lies can build to what seems
like the point of no return.
And we ALL KNOW WHERE they START!
“We all know what it’s like to deceive someone, to be deceived, and
to be suspected of deceiving,” says Bok, a senior visiting fellow at
Harvard’s Center for Population and Development Studies....
Well, she is RIGHT ABOUT THAT!
From a liar’s perspective, “You’re very optimistic about not getting
caught,” adds Bok. “Also, you think you have good reasons to lie, or
good intentions. But the people being deceived — investors, public
citizens, whoever — don’t necessarily feel that way.”
HELLO!!!
Bok differentiates between people with some semblance of a conscience
who lie and those who feel no remorse whatsoever. But for both, the day
of reckoning, should it come, can be painful.... ruined lots of lives, she notes. “And that should bother someone,” she said. “But it may not.”
I think you have found someone whom it bothers, reader.
Colorado-based blogger and writer Bob Brown runs the website
Deceptology.com. Dedicated to the “study of deception,” the site
examines phenomena ranging from pranks and hoaxes to fraud and lying on a
Madoff-esque scale.
Must be a bs site if the Globe is promoting it.
A former magician, Brown theorizes that Armstrong
is such a competitive, Type A personality that he may not even
acknowledge he’s been lying — or cheating — by living in an
I’m-not-guilty bubble that finally bursts.
And that explains our leaders across all sectors, America.
“Some of us who don’t lie can’t wrap our heads around that,” Brown acknowledges.
Oh, well, we all lie, my Globe told me.
Magicians actually fight something called “magician’s guilt,” he
says, where they acknowledge deliberately deceiving people for the
purpose of entertaining them.
Is there a media guilt for the endless peddling of war lies?
If they dwell too much on the betrayal
aspect, they cannot perform effectively.
Translation: they wouldn't be able to shovel s*** day after day.
So they must rationalize the
deception — or find another gig.
“An analogy would be, you lie on your resume because you need the job
to feed your family,” says Brown. “You find a way to fit the lie into
your personality.”
Brown has written nearly 3,000 blog posts on various aspects of lying and deceiving.
“Nothing surprises me about what people will lie about, especially to
preserve their worldview,” he says. “Magicians, con men, people who
cheat on their spouses — they all use the same principles underneath.”
No mention of war criminals, banking looters, or enabling mouthpiece media?
--more--"
The flip side of the coin that has dominated today's TV newscasts:
"Girlfriend of Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o was a hoax" by Jim McBride |
Globe staff, January 17, 2013
Manti Te’o’s story was the most compelling of the college football season.
The All-America linebacker and star of a Notre Dame team enjoying a
Cinderella season was playing inspired football on the field and dealing
with great mental anguish off it. Two of the most important women in
his life, his grandmother and his girlfriend, were gravely ill.
Both women, Annette Santiago, Te’o’s grandmother, and Lennay Kekua,
reported to be Te’o’s girlfriend, died within hours of each other Sept.
11, 2012.
Now, it appears Te’o’s inspiring story was a hoax. According to a report on Deadspin.com,
a website that has broken some high-profile stories but not an outlet
regarded for journalistic standards, Kekua never existed.
Well, the National Enquirer broke the John Edwards love-child story so you really ought not to be hurling around invective at other news reporters or their sites, Globe. C'mon, man!
What remains unclear is whether Te’o was a participant in the hoax.
Te’o has denied taking part and Notre Dame athletic director Jack
Swarbrick said the fraud was perpetrated against the linebacker.
“Nothing about what I have learned has shaken my faith in Manti Te’o one iota,’’ Swarbrick said Wednesday night.
Notre Dame officials said Te’o and his parents informed the school on
Dec. 26 that the linebacker had been the victim of the hoax. According
to the school, a person using a fictitious name “apparently ingratiated
herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe
she had tragically died of leukemia.’’
*********************
Prior to Wednesday’s report, Te’o was seen as a
person of great character — an emotional and inspirational leader on
and off the field who was the face of a Fighting Irish squad that went
12-0 before losing the BCS national title game to Alabama.
Te’o had a subpar performance against the Crimson Tide, missing several early tackles, and looked fatigued on the sideline.
He appeared to lack his normal energy level. I'm lacking mine when it comes to reading a Globe these days.
--more--"
Also see: The Boston Globe Can Not Say a Lie
Not when it is certain intere$t$ or people involved.
