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The Santa Claus Lie – A Gateway Drug to Collective (Self) Deception
The Santa Claus Lie – A Gateway Drug to Collective (Self) Deception
By
Cognitive Dissonance
I spend what some might imagine is an inordinate amount of time thinking about lies and self deception. But from my point of view it is a fundamental flaw that cripples us as individuals and as a society. Lying and lies permeate our culture from top to bottom in ways we often never perceive and rarely wish to see. Essentially it is the foundational building block that supports all that is wrong with us and why we continuously repeat our oftentimes disastrous personal and societal mistakes. Deception, self and societal, is the fatal flaw, something we have come to call ‘being human’.
Do as I Say, Not as I Do
Consider for a few moments how often we as parents come face to face with the sometimes embarrassing problem of explaining to our young children why we tell public and private lies, but that they should not lie to us. How our telling a lie can actually be good under certain circumstances, such as shielding our self and others from a painful (self) truth or a blow to (our) their ego. What is often unspoken is that we lie to others in order to be lied to by others.
The odd thing is that if you were to ask random people on the street if they believed themselves to be honest you would get answers along the lines of “Yes”, “It depends”, “For the most part” or “Most of the time”. I suspect my readers have answered the question in a similar vein; I know this author has. We really do believe we are (basically) honest because we have willingly (eagerly?) deconstructed the dividing line between ‘honest’ and ‘dishonest’ and reformed it into a soft squishy malleable moving target somewhere near the center.
In other words we ‘know’ that stealing $1,000 from our employer or family is dishonest, but taking some pens and paper from the office or an old mechanics socket set from gramps………well, that isn’t really ‘stealing’ per se, just sort of borrowing on a semi permanent basis. Unless of course we want to believe that they ‘deserve’ to be stolen from, thus righting some previous wrong. Then all bets are off.
Seven Billion and Counting
The examples of personal and social dishonesty are as numerous and varied as the people who practice (self) deception, which pretty much means all of us. And while just about anyone can conduct a reasonably honest philosophical discussion about self and social dishonesty, few of us would reveal our deepest darkest secrets to even our closest friends, family or spouse because those secrets often revolve around overt or covert dishonesty, even if only to ourselves.
And then there is the self deception that we aren’t consciously aware of, clouded by both denial and social programming. While my previous articles have discussed denial ad nauseam I wish to focus a bit on the social programming aspect promoted mostly by herd behavior and alluded to by the title of this article.
I have long felt that religion was (and in many respects still is) a gateway drug to rampant self deception and public enabling of the cultural lie. Please understand that I am talking about manmade and man administered ‘religion’ and not about whether or not there exists a supreme being. But as the world’s population slowly drifts away from blind religious obedience and begins to recognize the inherent hypocrisy of those who promote religious fervor and division (my God way or the highway) another mind control mechanism has risen to take its place……...narcissistic consumerism based upon the lie of endless resources and ever increasing debt.
I propose that some of, if not most of, our lying behavior is programmed into us culturally by social acceptance of ‘harmless’ self deceptions such as the Santa Claus lie. The key is that the lie must be perceived as harmless or as causing less harm (a wonderfully relative term that can be made to accommodate any lie) than the ‘truth’ might cause to the victim of the lie. From that point on our own internal psychological rationalization and justification process takes over and we reform the lie into a (relatively) harmless half truth/white lie in our own ‘eyes’. Or at least a lie softened enough for most of us to stomach.
Of course this entire process is infinity more complex than I have just outlined and yet amazingly it is that simple. And it all starts when we as very young children begin to receive our own personalized imprinting courtesy of our initial programmers, our parents and primary care givers who themselves have been, and continue to be, imprinted by society at large and their inner social circle of personal peer review. From there it trickles down into our inner consciousness for final fine tuning and assimilation.
Infinite Creativity
We are all individual conscious entities engulfed within a herd of like minded individuals, interconnected yet separate, seemingly born without an operating manual yet infinitely capable of self expression, creativity and inspiration beginning at a very young age. We are born into this reality as individuals, yet we spend our entire lives trying to be just like the rest of the herd, a product of centuries (millennium?) of conditioning to ignore the innate knowledge and wisdom that springs from within in order to blindly follow the herd and the alpha directly ahead.
Seen from this perspective, something like The Santa Claus Lie has great utility in the conditioning process. Something that started out innocent enough, a tale of Saint Nichols, is slowly hijacked and commercialized by entities who wish to condition us in a way that creates ‘demand’ for products and services, many of which we do not need or even desire except for the fact that others in the herd are conditioned to believe they ‘need’ them, thus we do.
I find it endlessly fascinating that in ancient indigenous cultures the shaman or healer’s purpose was not just to administer the natural healing arts to his local tribe members, but to teach and guide the tribe to be emotionally and psychologically healthy and fit. Call it original sin, call it ‘being human’, call it herding behavior, but the shaman understood these self destructive tendencies and worked to help his people overcome this strange attraction in order to grow and blossom as powerful reality creators.
Intraspecific Kleptoparasites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptoparasitism
Yet the modern sociopathic man, essentially parasitic individuals who present themselves as our so called ‘leaders’ and thus the ultimate in Intraspecific Kleptoparasites, (Kleptoparasitism may be intraspecific (the parasite is the same species as the victim) or interspecific (the parasite is a different species) make every effort possible to exploit and enflame the very human flaws ancient shaman tried to heal. At the very least the shaman helped the tribe be aware of, and thus better able to defend themselves from, their own psychological and emotional flaws.
Seen from the perspective of the larger battle between reality creating humanity and those who wish to subvert and control humans for the parasite’s own benefit, one must question everything and anything that presents itself as (innocent) cultural expressions.
We tend to think that large population ‘control’ is nearly impossible because there are so many different human (re)actions to control. The key to understanding how this is done is to recognize that subverted humanity is perusing what it believes is its own self interest rather than that of the parasites. Thus total control is not needed, just a deceptive nudge here and there to move the willingly compliant herd along in the general direction desired by the Intraspecific Kleptoparasites.
Cognitive Dissonance
01-01-2014
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"...the reality is only 5% of the population is needed to change the world.
Wow, you sure are self deluded. Ron Paul had much more than 5% support.
Movements like "occupy" didn't gain traction because they didn't have a common purpose. They sat around all day voting on what issues were important. So much so, that nobody attending even knew what they were protesting. In other words, they fragmented themselves. FAIL.
But they tried. Success.
As a parent I spend part of my teaching time instructing on being careful of what one believes or knows.
1) Question everything and everyone.
2) Be open to new information and to being wrong. Denial is ignorance.
3) Seek out information contrary to your knowledge, idea or belief. Know all sides.
4) Be suspicious of anyone and any idea that requires something of you and dwells on shame or pride.
5) And how to recognize sociopathy. At work, on the car lot, on the podium, etc.
So while I train them on not to lie, steal, etc. I more importantly train them on how to defend themselves in a world full of lies and theft.
I also teach them not to kill, but also train them on how to shoot and kill in self defense.
once in turkey waiting to go into early christian caves a young boy approached to ask if he might be our guide. we usually liked to explore alone but he obviously needed the money and we agreed. as we entered the caves he said...'you know they actually believe she was a virgin!'
the remark stayed with me and returned several times during the rest of our tour through egypt and russia and finally back through turkey. i began to recall all the things we as westerners believed or liked to entertain...santa being one, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy, that she may've been a virgin etc. and what i came with was the very notion of how our imaginations work. we...meaning westeners, basically allow the notion of the impossible. we will consider suspending disbelief and entertain the impossible and i believe that this has greatly enhanced our ability to go beyond what is possible and travel the cosmos of the impossible. it has allowed thought from drama, fiction, math, science to soar. i propose it is essential to our creativity. that isn't to say i believe in dishonesty. but simply because the imagination is allowed to embrace the idea of fairy giving money for discarded redundant teeth or that a woman may be impregnated by god is a very powerful catalyst.
Nature is a big fan of deception. Humans ARE OF nature. Deception provides utility in survival. We cannot hope to eradicate "deception" any more than we can hope to eradicate "greed."
It's always a good idea to question everything and to be cautious about encountering deception.
Modern religions tend to provide some sense of protection from deception. I wonder, though, how the tradeoff will materialize: what if this is really about congregating people for some big alien harvest? No one can prove otherwise.
That is a very interesting point you make there.
Ever notice how when you tell a joke it will get many more laughs if you tell it as if it is the truth than if you preface it with, this is a joke?
Till lately, the world believed in the heroism of a Lucretia, - of a Mucius Scaevola, - and suffered itself, by this belief, to be warmed and inspired. But now comes your historical criticism, and says that those persons never lived, but are to be regarded as fables and fictions, divined by the great mind of the Romans. What are we to do with so pitiful a truth?
If the Romans were great enough to invent such stories, we should at least be great enough to believe them.
- J. W. von Goethe
I've actually been thinking along these lines and I'm writing an article about my conclusions. Hope to see it emerge in the next few weeks.
Great article! It talks about "the Santa Clause effect", which I'm particularly sensitive to. Best policy is to never lie to your children.
Now with the basic understanding that our society is suffering from mass delusion, can we beef up these articles a little more? How about exposing one of the biggest lies out there: biomedical "science", which perpetuates these lies:
Germs are infectious and cause disease, environmental factors cause disease, genome theory, some diseases can be sexually transmitted, vaccines prevent disease, or improve immunity to them, viruses are infectious and cause disease.
In exposing the truth, why stop at politics, big business, or war? What makes everyone think that the medical establishment is free from lies and propaganda?
I will quote kchrisc:
"1) Question everything and everyone."
"2) Be open to new information and to being wrong. Denial is ignorance."
" 3) Seek out information contrary to your knowledge, idea or belief. Know all sides."
Awesome
@mophead
Your comment about not lying to children jumped out at me. I just posted this article to my Fb page with this comment:
"The Santa Claus Lie – A Gateway Drug to Collective (Self) Deception
Very interesting article.
My #1 golden rule as a mother is to never lie to my children about anything. A parent can lose much credibility when/if they discover those lies or half truths, I think..
Santa Claus was the only exception, and it was a major issue with one of my sons.. that I had "lied"...
There are times, though, when avoidance of an issue (or a detailed explanation) not age-appropriate might be in order, like when my first two sons were 5 & 7, and they wanted to know what "blow job" meant, spray-painted on a building that the 7 year old read practicing his reading skills..
And once, another one of my sons and his friend, a little girl, both about 6 or 7, asked her mother, as she was driving them somewhere, how babies were made, she said you just kiss and make a wish. Now I know she meant well, but that bugged me.
A few years later, they discovered porn videos in her family's playroom. That bugged me, too, on a number of levels.
Just some random thoughts this morning, better than thinking about Fukushima, and one of my sons flying back to school near LA this morning..
Santa brought him a bottle of potassium iodide for Christmas.."
And I agree with you 100% on the rest of your thoughts as well. :)
Betsy Metz
"There are times, though, when avoidance of an issue (or a detailed explanation) not age-appropriate might be in order,...."
In my opinion there are age inappropriate truths that need to be buffered or avoided until the child has reached an age where understanding can mesh with the knowledge. There is a fine line there and ultimately the parent is the best judge. But going along with cultural lies just so that we may fit in is wrong.
It almost always comes down to intent more so than the action itself.
Back in March I posted "The Science Delusion – Reexamining our Worldview Mindset".
In the coming months I plan on tackling many of the subjects you suggest now that Mrs. Cog has retired me to the pasture. More time to get in trouble.......er........write.
Your writing and thoughts, CD, are always a pleasure to read and help me to understand the psychology of humans, which doesn't always come naturally to me. I have a real problem with liars..
I've always been over-the-top honest, and for a period of time I thought "stupidly honest", like when I couldn't lie to prospective employers in the finance world, post-college, about being engaged and marrying a marine which would require us to leave the area (and prospective job) within the year.. I ended up bartending & waitressing.
Over time, I'm 53 now, I realize that there were very few lost opportunities for being "stupidly honest", and as an activist on many non-partisan "truth and awareness" issues now, THAT has given me a lot of credibility.
Truth can set us free, and I mean that not in the organized religion way.. :)
Thank you so much for your thought-provoking essays, CG.
Betsy
If nothing else the truth is so much easier to remember than that long string of lies we told to first promote, then support, the original lie. :-)
I love distinct, clear rules but recognize that reality is never black or white. Killing is wrong....except under certain conditions. Lying is wrong but I'll say I don't smoke to get lower insurance ..it's for my children. Stealing is wrong but the company won't miss a few pens. Speeding is wrong but no one is around Law should be obeyed unless they are "bad". We constantly swim in the nuances.
I have to say, you are teaching your children well, there is a distinct difference between murder and killing, for example.
As to number five on your list, I teach mine old school as well. The most convincing lies are the ones told with a certain element of truth contained within the broader lie. Find the truth within the well articulated lie and you have found the depth & motivations of the deceiver.
I have observed this usually marks whether you're dealing with a true sociopath or not, as opposed to a Santa Claus lie meant to bring wonder & joy through a deception ;-)
As for politics they are well versed the fact that it is ALWAYS but money and power. They don't fully understand, but they will.
Sidenote: They get a twice a month police brutality "briefing." They are told the pertinent facts and are then shown the related videos and photos (Kelly Thomas anyone?!). As a result, they do not suffer from authority and cop worship. They also get doses of photo and video evidence of the overseas crimes of the criminals of the US government. All kids should understand what the local gun and badge thugs are really about and what they are capable of.
An American citizen, not a US subject.
Sounds like your children will turn out just fine.
There is indeed a fine line between state crimes & what we describe as common crimes. The state always assumes a prerogative to do what they will, as opposed to what it intends for its citizens to follow in their own lives.
They will come to understand this dichotomy too...for good or evil.
"Find the truth within the well articulated lie and you have found the depth & motivations of the deceiver."
well said. the history of the world in a sentence
happy new year nmewn
nice poem by the way
Happy New Year Davey...and don't forget to eat your black eyed peas today, for good luck in the coming year! Its an old Southern thang but it seems to work.
On the poem, I don't have a poetic or artistic bone in my body but I sure do admire those who do ;-)
Very nice and well articulated. May I steal that from you? Please say yes so it won't be actual theft. :-)
Feel free, even without attribution.
Reminds me, I left out that I above all teach them to think for themselves. "Don't 'know,' think, knowing will take care of itself."
"We need more people to think, not agree."
3) Seek out information contrary to your knowledge, idea or belief. Know all sides.
Yes...I thank God Almighty for Nietzsche. LOL. Nietzsche has helped me in so many countless ways. Anybody whom has read what I have wrote recently knows how.
The Ancient Greeks were very much like the Chimpanzees.
I agree......I think. :-)
“In no profession are the prizes for spooking the People with concocted devils, demons, and doomsday fears – and for falsely promising wondrous deeds of miraculous salvation – greater than in politics. It’s a gaudily glittering stage that attracts and rewards those who excel at charlatanism.” - Don Bourdreaux
And the Nazi's belt buckle read: "Gott mit uns"
“Since Luther’s time there has been a conviction more or less rooted, that a man may by an intellectual process think out a religion for himself, and that, as the highest of all duties, he ought to do so. The influence of the political discussion, and the influence of the religious discussion, have so long and so firmly combined, and have so effectually enforced one another, that the old notions of loyalty, and fealty, and authority, as they existed in the Middle Ages, have now over the best minds almost no effect.”
- Bagehot
The greatest lie people believe about themselves, whether self derived or impressed by others, is that their particular life has some esoteric meaning. It is even more so for celebrities and our so-called leaders. The truth is probably that we rationalize the lie by our daily actions and interactions because what else can we do (and thus the need for spirituality).
As for the Santa Claus lie, it seems interesting to me that those who benefit the most from usurping the legend of St Nicholas while, at the same time progressively deemphasizing the religious aspects to the season, are non-Christian merchantilists, the Jews, the Japanese, and, recently, the Chinese.
I've contemplated that possibility (the 1st paragraph). However, knowing what I know and have experienced over the last 15 yrs., there would be too much coincidence involved for that to be true. I have seen, sufficient for my acknowledgement, evidence of an underlying energy of coherence of consciousness. Individual input has an effect upon it. For this alone, life has meaning. Besides, if it didn't, why would so many endure it? For a huge number of people around the world, everyday life is a drag! Instinct doesn't explain it, either. Many of us engage often in conduct detrimental to our survival. In fact, there are few who don't. Where's that instinct during these times.
"The greatest lie people believe about themselves, whether self derived or impressed by others, is that their particular life has some esoteric meaning."
And what proof have you, that individual lives have no meaning?
that their particular life has some esoteric meaning.
We Are Here.. To Find Out Why we are Here....
there is a very powerful picture.. of Santa Claus Praying kneeling in front of a Nativity Scene
The greatest lie people believe is that their Life, Liberty and Property is more important than others'. They subscribe to a life of aggression than to one of non-aggression.
They will even empower proxies in a position of aggression against themselves so as to attempt to subdue their neighbors. They are often surprised when it is they that are subdued.
"First they came for my Liberty, and I did not resist. Then they came for my Property, and I again did not resist. When they came for my life, I had nothing to resist them with."
Actually, it is not a lie that one's "Life, Liberty and Property is more important than others'." What else does one human have?
What is misunderstood is that the only way to assure your own Life, Liberty and Property is by protecting everyone's. But such a world is beyond the conditioning and bias of this one.
@kchrisc and Suteibu.
Concepts I have repeatedly posted on this site in response to other articles to be met with boo coo down votes. The down votes do not bother me. Unless of course I don't get a bunch of them. Then I figure I am doing something worng :). I do find it all so very interesting. I would up you both a million but my voter thing is not working and besides, I would be going against convention.
Thank y ou CD (whoops again) for this post and all others for one of the best comment threads I have read in awhile. May the New Year bring all better than the last and may we recognize it if it occurs.
"Why people don't rise up massively today? Why there are no real revolutions? How we tolerate all things that have been imposed to us? These questions come up in people's minds more and more often today in Greece and abroad, due to the economic crisis. Some theories are circulated as an answer, among these, explanations which include, for example, the psychosynthesis of modern Greeks, but the truth is that there is something more fundamental behind this passive behaviour and concerns not only Greece, but the entire Western world."
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/01/how-western-societies-lost-th...
It 's good. The government/society problem is partly owing to Democracy which is a dis-functional form of government. The people who are going to get elected are the psychopaths who can appeal to the lowest common denominator of the mass mind.
Dear Author, while you are most articulate, your lack of respect/"appreciation" for the spiritual is most revealing.
The ability to use or abuse a language is a mighty great responsibility. You FAIL.
You in effect confirm that, WITHOUT religion, one is dependent upon one's own "sense of 'what's right' or 'the good thing' to do".
YET: the answer to THAT, unfortunately...throughtout history...is total despotism. Tyranny. Dictatorship.
BAD STUFF FOR THE INDIVIDUAL, in other words. IMHO.....
You are only feeding the BAD - but HUMAN - nature of people...that of the anarchists as well as the so-call 'libertarians' or 'randists' who lurk on this site, who find self-satisfaction the ultimate goal.
LESS IDEOLOGY, MORE REALITY.
- You in effect confirm that, WITHOUT religion, one is dependent upon one's own "sense of 'what's right' or 'the good thing' to do".
- LESS IDEOLOGY, MORE REALITY.
you are quite the word smith in your own right my friend.
On a more serous note, correct me if I'm wrong, you seem to imply that religion is mans moral savior.
I have come to believe that in the vast majority of circumstances morality is self evident and it is through blind ritualisms that man perverts god into a tool of oppression. I find myself taking note of less hate in the name of secular humanism than the Abrahamic religions of the west.
Secular humanism.
I would define religion as the shared defined beliefs of large group of people. Atheists and secular humanists have their own dogma as equally importance to them as the spiritual beliefs of Christians, Islamists, Hindus, and Buddhists. And they are just as ardent in proselytizing their beliefs. Taking God out of one's own beliefs does not eliminate the religious nature of your beliefs if you self-identify with others who share your beliefs.
A spiritual life is an independent life. If one must seek acceptance of their personal beliefs from others, it does not say much about the depths of your faith in those beliefs.
"If one must seek acceptance of their personal beliefs from others, it does not say much about the depths of your faith in those beliefs."
Yup!
It often comes across as though folks are insecure and need to keep repeating something to distract themselves from their insecurity.
However, when folks collect themselves in packs it's kind of essential to "fit in."
I once came across a guy's distinction between spirituality and religion ...
'Spirituality is an individual's recognition of the existence of a non-physical reality. Religion is a social expression of that'.
Spirituality is when you can interact with your truth without religion.
What everyone seems to miss to which you allude is the religoin of "the state". As bullshit like secular humanism replaces "religion" so does the worship of the state do the same. And within that tribal mentality the herd can be pushed to do all the same things-good and bad-that religion does. Same capacity for hate. Same self delusion as stated in the article. Just a different name.
Until man shakes his tribal obsession with government and his innate desire to rule and be ruled not much will change.
IN a nutshell this is the mentality:
Humans are bad. Human nature is bad. Without the state or government or some entity to save me, protect me, help me, I will surely persih because without any guidance man would just go on agiant crime spree and wipe itself out. I mean juts look at all the criminals we have to keep in prisons! Really when you think about it, without the local police, your next door neighbor would probably wait until dark, break into your house, steal all your gold, rape your wife, and just for kicks kill your kids. I mean, why wouldn't he, right? We all KNOW people like that, right? It''s a combination of the mighty police/government and the fear each person has for his invisible friend in the sky that keeps 'em in line. Otherwise the shit would hit the fan!
Tyranny, despotism comes in all forms. Here in the US the despots (high offices, I'm talking. think FDR, Wilson, Clinton, and the Repubs) have always been Christians because that has been traditionally the flavor of the month among te herd. Moa, Stalin, Che, liked the Athiest label. They probably felt it went alomg with the bad uniforms and the Marxist crapola they were selling. I'm sure some day a "secular humanist" will slip in there and I'll bet they behave the very same way.
Funny thing. I've never felt at any time in my life I've ever wanted, needed, or even considered having a "leader".
And yes, obviously, I have never been married.
I do not consider myself a secular humanist but i like their creed. It seems to me that secular humanism is about skepticism and freedom and rational thought. It is not your typical Sheep Herders Ruse.
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/11
- Free Inquiry
- Separation Of Church And State
- The Ideal Of Freedom
- Ethics Based On Critical Intelligence
- Moral Education
- Religious Skepticism
- Reason
- Science And Technology
- Evolution
- Education
I object to ritualism within religion and i certainly object to the oppression of the state.
"- Ethics Based On Critical Intelligence
- Moral Education"
Like trying to control fog.
Wow. Your religion has 10 commandments, too. I'm sure that is just a coincidence.
Ethics based on critical intelligence not morals. It means that someone smarter than you (or in power which means smarter than you by default) gets to define it based on their interpretation of whatever situation they find themselves in. But then they do teach the li'l children morals derived, one would assume, from the wisdom of the previously mentioned elders .
Science and technology because all of the world's great mysteries and miracles are just a taxpayer-funded research grant away from being solved...like global warming/climate change.
But it seems the biggest target for secular humanists is other religions. Separation of church and state (unless it's the church of secular humanism). Religious skepticism (unless it's the religion of secular humanism, of course). Then there's evolution, cause the belief in anything else (God, aliens seeding the planet, etc) is offensive to the secular humanist religion.
And what religion based on the mind of sociopathic do-gooders could survive without controlling the education system?
Sounds soulless and eerily communistic to me. Where do you people meet?
"A spiritual life is an independent life. If one must seek acceptance of their personal beliefs from others, it does not say much about the depths of your faith in those beliefs."
I have little faith in my belief of other faiths. One might even go so far as in saying that i don't believe in them.
It only matters that you believe in your own. Why would you concern yourself about others?
I suspect for a similar reason to the one motivating you to ask.