Re: [UC] Glenn Moyer Eats Crow
Elizabeth F Campion wrote: I think psychiatric analysis is best left to professionals. from my inbox today: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i49/49b00201.htm [worth the read for the punchline at the end] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - DECONSTRUCT THIS Lying to Ourselves Does being president mean never having to admit mistakes? The New York Times columnist David Brooks emerged from a recent meeting with President Bush marveling at how, far from being worn down by the past few years, Bush seems empowered. His self-confidence is the most remarkable feature of his presidency. But where Brooks sees self-confidence, others see self-delusion. In Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) [Harcourt], Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson anoint Bush the poster boy for tenacious clinging to a discredited belief because of his Iraq policy. The president may be exceptional, but he is hardly alone. As Tavris and Aronson point out, none of us is immune to the need to justify our actions. Even when confronted with evidence that they are wrong, most people do not change their point of view or course of action. In recent interviews, both authors explained the psychological mechanics behind our reluctance to admit mistakes and reflected on how that has nurtured a mistake-phobic culture. Elliot Aronson, professor emeritus of social psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz: The key to understanding self-justification is cognitive dissonance, which is the state of tension that occurs when a person holds two ideas, attitudes, or beliefs that are psychologically inconsistent. Dissonance is most painful, and most necessary to resolve, when it involves some aspect of the self, such as I am a smart, confident, responsible person who knows cigarettes cause cancer and I smoke two packs a day. That sort of dissonance has enormous motivational power. You are forced to do one of two things: You have to stop smoking, or you have to justify continuing to smoke. If the dissonance is between I am a good, honest, competent person and I just did something that was cruel, unethical, or incompetent, the motivation to justify the latter to preserve the former is even greater. That is how cognitive dissonance becomes the engine of self-justification. Carol Tavris, social psychologist: Cognitive dissonance is wired into the brain, but how we think about mistakes is not. Our culture is mistake-phobic and responsibility-phobic, but that is entirely a learned phenomenon. Once we understand how dissonance works, we can take steps to correct for it. Just as good drivers are aware that they have an optical blind spot, the more we understand our own mental blind spots, the better able we are to compensate for them. Aronson: There is a very important distinction between self-justification and explicitly lying. When we know we have done something wrong, we will lie to avoid punishment. There is no surprise in that. Toddlers do it, too -- as soon as humans can speak, we lie. Self-justification is more dangerous and more insidious because it causes us to lie to ourselves -- pulling the wool over our own eyes. We are not even aware that a mistake was made, let alone that we made it. Tavris: Self-justification does serve a protective and useful function: It prevents us from spending too much time worrying and fretting, and lets us sleep at night. This is very adaptive and very functional. Once we have made a decision, it is beneficial that we naturally reduce dissonance and focus on the reasons that our decision was the best and wisest. But the reason self-justification is so dangerous is that in justifying the road we do take, we fall into the trap of justifying everything that flows from that first decision, and this dynamic can take us very far from our original goals and intentions. People can become entrapped. The mechanics of self-justification see to it that they become more and more enmeshed in their decision and less and less able to consider the possibility that they are wrong. The greater the consequences, the greater the harm they cause themselves and others, the greater the blindness. The reason is that we do not perceive new information rationally. Rather, the brain is designed to notice and remember information that confirms what we already believe and overlook, dismiss, or minimize information that is dissonant. In fact, probably the central bias in the brain is the belief that we ourselves have no biases. Everybody else is biased, but we see things clearly and truly. Aldous Huxley was right when he said, There is probably no such thing as a conscious hypocrite. http://chronicle.com Section: The Chronicle Review Volume 53, Issue 49, Page B2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ps: happy birthday, ol' gal. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN [aka laserbeam®] [aka ray] SERIAL LIAR. CALL FOR RATES. It is very clear
Re: [UC] Glenn Moyer Eats Crow the white glove boys acting badly, again
On 8/6/07 7:29 PM, Brian Siano [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ... Glenn _IS_ a liar and a mental case. Tony and I have merely pointed this out to the list. In a message dated 8/6/2007 8:00:02 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: What could one say to that? Uh, the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits, and the barfing-cheese boys can't seem to find them here? Ciao, Craig ** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour
Re: [UC] Glenn Moyer Eats Crow
I think psychiatric analysis is best left to professionals. Liz On Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:29:01 -0400 Brian Siano [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Wilma de Soto wrote: Second, Did NOT Anthony West (and others) try to portray Glenn NOT only as a liar and a mental case, but also Ray Rorke repeatedly? That is NOT true. Tony West did not portray Glenn as a liar and a mental case. Glenn _IS_ a liar and a mental case. Tony and I have merely pointed this out to the list. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
[UC] Glenn Moyer Eats Crow
Glenn wrote: Dear list, I spent a lot of time looking for the truth on this car jacking. I am not sorry I pursued this but I'm sorry I was the instrument of misinformation. I certainly gave an honest account of my sources of information. I'm glad that a serious police problem was uncovered. We don't know the apparently disputed details of this incident and I certainly have no confidence at this point. I think the police information and reporting needs to be a two way street. Maybe if you hadn't been so hell-fired motivated to portray Tony West as a purveyor of lies and racism, you wouldn't have embarassed yourself as badly as you've done. Face it. You wanted to malign Tony. As soon as you thought you had some evidence against him-- and on a weekend when Tony'd said he'd be away-- you _ran_ with it. You _immediately_ denounced Tony as a liar, and insinuated that he'd lied because he wanted to make our neighborhood frightened of black men. Only _after_ some doubts cropped up did you start qualifying your claims. And now that you've been shown that you were simply _wrong_... you blame the _police_ for failing to report things to you. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Glenn Moyer Eats Crow
First, WHY are you posting on this horrible list? The UC Neighbors List was created to distance the good, truthful people from the crazies, wackos, etc. There is no reason WHATSOEVER for your disputing ANY account of community politics posted herein since they would be patently false! Second, Did NOT Anthony West (and others) try to portray Glenn NOT only as a liar and a mental case, but also Ray Rorke repeatedly? On 8/6/07 3:31 PM, Brian Siano [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Glenn wrote: Dear list, I spent a lot of time looking for the truth on this car jacking. I am not sorry I pursued this but I'm sorry I was the instrument of misinformation. I certainly gave an honest account of my sources of information. I'm glad that a serious police problem was uncovered. We don't know the apparently disputed details of this incident and I certainly have no confidence at this point. I think the police information and reporting needs to be a two way street. Maybe if you hadn't been so hell-fired motivated to portray Tony West as a purveyor of lies and racism, you wouldn't have embarassed yourself as badly as you've done. Face it. You wanted to malign Tony. As soon as you thought you had some evidence against him-- and on a weekend when Tony'd said he'd be away-- you _ran_ with it. You _immediately_ denounced Tony as a liar, and insinuated that he'd lied because he wanted to make our neighborhood frightened of black men. Only _after_ some doubts cropped up did you start qualifying your claims. And now that you've been shown that you were simply _wrong_... you blame the _police_ for failing to report things to you. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Glenn Moyer Eats Crow
Wilma de Soto wrote: Second, Did NOT Anthony West (and others) try to portray Glenn NOT only as a liar and a mental case, but also Ray Rorke repeatedly? That is NOT true. Tony West did not portray Glenn as a liar and a mental case. Glenn _IS_ a liar and a mental case. Tony and I have merely pointed this out to the list. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Glenn Moyer Eats Crow
What could one say to to that? On 8/6/07 7:29 PM, Brian Siano [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Wilma de Soto wrote: Second, Did NOT Anthony West (and others) try to portray Glenn NOT only as a liar and a mental case, but also Ray Rorke repeatedly? That is NOT true. Tony West did not portray Glenn as a liar and a mental case. Glenn _IS_ a liar and a mental case. Tony and I have merely pointed this out to the list. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
