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Why We Think It’s OK to Cheat and Steal (Sometimes)
Why We Think It’s OK to Cheat and Steal (Sometimes)
While there’s a general consensus among the Zero Hedge community that the big boys are manipulating the various markets to maintain and even accelerate the Ponzi, this still requires a great deal of conscious participation by those lower down the ladder. While many of us are calling for the hangman’s noose around Blankfein or Bernanke’s neck, shouldn’t we also being stringing up your next door neighbor or that self righteous prick of a brother-in-law or maybe even you?
One of the concepts I constantly highlight is that we’re all susceptible to this behavior. And while I probably wouldn’t get much argument on this point from the more self aware and honest readers, I’m absolutely certain they would argue with me as to degree. We’re all liars, cheats and thieves; of this I have no doubt. Once this is understood and as painful as this may be to internalize, the only questions remaining are to what degree and how do we rationalize and justify this degree? You would be surprised how much your surroundings and peer group have to do with this rather than just your personal moral code.
We’re chasing windmills if we think that by getting rid of certain people or regimes (once again) we will change the direction we’re headed. This is a multi headed Hydra and our heads are there as well. In order to understand the nature of the beast in government and on Wall Street, we must first come to know the beast within. I can’t tell you how many of my clients have no problem informing me that while they’re horrified by the corruption and theft in this country, they want their piece of the pie. What’s good for the gander is good for the goose as long as the goose can rationalize it away as just trying to maintain their life style and income.
I’m not judging my clients for I live in a glass house. But this will not change unless we begin to understand and accept that the beast is within and that we aren’t just fighting an external enemy but ultimately one that is internal. I’m absolutely certain that a major rationalization and justification used by the powers that be for pumping the Ponzi is that Mr. and Mrs. Jones are demanding it. And they would be correct. There is an interesting video on the web of Catherine Austin Fitts asking a group of people for a show of hands of those who would be willing to experience major losses to their 401(k) and pension accounts to stop the beast. Very few hands went up.
Dan Ariely, author of “Predictably Irrational” gave an enlightening and informative talk last March (2009) about “bugs in the moral code”, a talk which coincided with the depths of the stock market crash. This 16 minute video is well worth watching if for no other reason than the insight it will bring you regarding your own behavior. I won’t spoil the video by discussing the contents other than to ask you to pay particular attention near the end when he mentions that the further the psychological or physical distance between you and the actual money, the higher the propensity to steal. He then mentions this helps explain the wholesale theft using derivatives. I agree.
For thousands of years there has been cycle after cycle of people allowing themselves to be exploited and abused by the few. This will never end until we understand why we willingly slip on the chains that bind us to our masters. I submit that unless and until we’re willing to explore these extremely painful areas within our own dark abyss, we’re doomed to more of the same. I’m not trying to divert attention from the sociopaths; I’m saying the sociopaths are home grown. We can do all the weed pulling we feel is needed and more will grow unless we go after the roots. And the roots are within.
Dan Ariely followed this up with another talk in May of 2009 exploring the question “Are we in control of our decisions” which is also well worth watching. That link is below as well.
Our Buggy Moral Code
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_on_our_buggy_moral_code.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUdsTizSxSI
Are We in Control of our Own Decisions
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X68dm92HVI
Dan Ariely at TED.com
http://www.ted.com/speakers/dan_ariely.html
Catherine Austin Fitts Web Site
http://solari.com/blog/
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The planet can endure far more than she has so far from us. Her only real worry is a stray asteroid with enough mass and velocity to knock her off her orbit, barrelling in for a crash landing about a mile north or south of the equator.
As for our getting as much from her as our hands can carry, when she has had enough of this faux 'abuse', she'll just simply kick us off, and regenerate.
I'd be more worried about the people on it who conserved and still got thrown off.
Dear Ms Creant. Smart change of picture. Removes much unneeded sexual connotations.
But i really responded to say to trust yourself first and only. All others must prove some sincerety and love. Usually its the friends and family take the most advantage. Maybe it was just my karma to meet a lot of assholes, maybe theres just a lot of that out there.
BTW Cognitive Dissonance , some of us DONT steal, cheat or lie. Period
I would rather take a loss and have ,often and gladly.
MH-always good to see you posting here.
How can I trust you, when I can't trust me?
Ah, love and sincerity..how we lie even to ourselves for the brief escape from reality which love affords us. We feel important, powerful, seductive...wanted. Yet how sincere we act to gain this love when it's all just for show and self interest.
Me also. I once lived a lie by cheating and stealing to get what I wanted. I learned the hard way that integrity is a priceless quality and will sacrifice mine for nothing.
I have seen slaves who ride horses and princes who walk -Solomon
Its really been tough being in business with a combination of low selfesteem and a strict code of ethics i adhere to because of what life has taught me. Over paid workers and underbid jobs. But the 'on the road' and the ' under the bridge' years have not been forgotten.
What i learned to value is awareness of conciousness. Its a slippery thing to catch and material concerns (lies and such) hold one down to earth. I want to be free and have always arranged my life for maximum freedom. It often meant giving up something else.
Like you , having learned to appreciate myself i honor and respect my highest self by remaining virtuous in a debasing world.
PS disclaimer I still smoke pot and cigarettes. No longer attempting to be perfect, found i am good enough as i am.
Sometimes I touch myself.
I think this is what you might be reaching for:
"A tribe is a 'corporate body,' which Nature has entrusted with an assortment of human seed or genes, the assortment differing in some degree from that entrusted to every other tribe. If the genes are to work out their evolutionary effects, then it is necessary that the tribe or corporation should maintain its integrity through an infinity of generations. If a tribe loses its integrity by a slackening of social bonds, or by disintegration of the parental instincts, or by lack of courage or of skill to defend itself from the aggression of neighboring tribes, or by free interbreeding with neighbors and thus scattering its genes, then that tribe as an evolutionary venture has come to an untimely end. For evolutionary purposes it has proved a failure."
Sir Arthur Keith, Evolution and Ethics, 1945, p.7
Definitely not politically correct. :-)
I dont see how politically uncorrect it is. On the contrary, incredibly political correct.
Big issue with this line of though is that, despite real effort to get into this direction, nothing was brought to confirm that self preservation was an instinctual collective race.
And this point is the one un-PC.
maybe not, but then again, the non-PC stuff is always the most tasty.
interesting thing about america is that it's a tribe without an identity, or rather, it's the only tribe filled with every other tribe on the planet. so in sir keith's definition, it failed as soon as it was formed. that is, if we are only willing to see tribes as the way we have defined them over the past 5,000 years.
or perhaps, we are at a point where it is time to evolve past the concept of tribes altogether. not necessarily to abolish them (that is a little too kumbaya for my tastes), but rather to transcend and include.
America is not a tribe. It's a bunch of tribes living/working under the same political/economic system, within the same set of political borders. There's some mixing, but for the most part those tribes all reproduce within themselves, so in Sir Keith's definition, it's not a failure at all.
Having so many tribes under one roof inevitably creates frictions; this country has a lot of social issues hidden under the surface. This is evident in the media frenzy that occurs every time there's some kind race-relations issue.
If you think far enough down this path you kind of get to the conclusion that an extremely diverse country like the US is not great because of its diversity, it's great in spite of it... but them thar's some dangerous thoughts, Billy...if too many people start not believing in the cult of the multicult, in a country like the US you can kiss social stability goodbye...
"interesting thing about america is that it's a tribe without an identity, or rather, it's the only tribe filled with every other tribe on the planet."
Maybe not!! Better read Bill Bishop's "The Big Sort."
It would appear that we are re-tribalizing, as one would expect in a Grand Supercycle Downwave, as the public mood darkens.
Those of you in the "gold, guns, food" camp of collapse should ask yourselves whether, in "The Collapse of Complex Societies" (Joseph Tainter) it is better to be a lone armed individual or an armed tribesman under the leadership of a smart warlord.
The hard right edge of our screens is a bitch. Can't see past it!
thanks for the tip, Mr.P. from the online Q&A for the book:
"America was established, however, to benefit from this national diversity. The Founders believed that when people with diverging opinions hashed out their differences face-to-face, the country would be better off. The clashing of opinions would produce a better result. It was a brilliant insight. The Founders sought to make diversity a creative force. Differences didn't have to end in hate. They could be wielded to craft the best answer to problems. The Founders sought to turn the vice of disagreement into the virtue of new understanding. Now that simply doesn't happen — in Congress, in our legislatures, or between our increasingly isolated neighborhoods. We've replaced a belief in a nation with an oversized trust in ourselves and our carefully chosen surroundings."
http://www.thebigsort.com/maps.php
if you have ever spent any significant time in NYC, you would see the phenomenon in full force. curious thing though is that these tribal encampments sit smack dab on top of each other. how can the hasidim & the puerto ricans, with their rigid tribal identities, coexist in the same neighborhood for example without tearing each other to pieces?
some would say that they are bound by the mutual quest for the almighty dollar. that could be partially true, but after living through two recent occurrences of temporary 'societal collapses' where money was rendered momentarily moot, even the hardest cynic that went through these experiences would agree that these tribal divisions seemed to dissolve.
here's one back at ya (it's a PDF link):
"The Sacred Emergence of Nature"
p.s. try reducing your text size in your browser settings to overcome the bitch.
Genetically speaking mutts tend toward superior immune responses. I wish trading/investing decisions were an immune mediated response.
Ah... I was about to mention tribal relations - but... great minds and all that.
Fine quote.
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" --Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago.
Have generally very little faith in mainstream media these days but this article from CNN caught my eye. Talking of evil deeds, his action is the anti-thesis of the financial business in America.
In my mind Mark Dalton is a hero and I am buying a few books from his store. Wish some other ZHers would too and help him out.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/25/greene.lesson.wall.street/index.html
His store is at - http://www.biblio.com/bookstore/high-view-books-esmond