Comedians, Fools, and News Anchors

On Wednesday the 10th of this month Norman Solomon wrote an article for Truthout.org entitled, “The Sickening Praise for The Daily Show.” In it he suggests that the media’s overwhelming praise for Jon Stewart’s “A Daily Show” might really be a tacit form of convoluted self-loathing. He points out that while most journalists consume themselves with examining the emperor’s embroidery Mr. Stewart blatantly goes after the big and relevant issues of the day, speaking naked truth to powers that would otherwise be clothed in lies.

In a nation where, in truth, mainstream media neither swings right nor left but rather has no substance at all, how does the Daily Show get away with reporting the real news?

Because it’s a comedy show!

In the past you could tell the horrid truth that everyone knew but no one wanted to utter, and if you did it with a “wink, wink, nudge, nudge, witty tongue-in-cheek,” you could become a famous playwright (Google Shakespear). You could sing a little song, do a little dance, tell the truth and put seltzer down your pants. Why? Because comedy frequently provides a rather impervious armor for truth.

Consider the fools of the medieval court. They could hurl insults, laugh out loud at the preposterous, bring greed and ignorance into the light of day, poke fun at the nobility, break with convention, speak for the poor, and do a little tumbling all in a day’s work. All you had to do was claim to be stupid and wear a funny hat with bells.

Today you can still insult a president of the United States through an act of comedic mimicry and maybe even get a lucrative advertising contract (Google Frank Caliendo). And if you report the real news beneath a thin veil of joshin’ and jivin’ then you just might have the best comedy show of the season.

But addressing the important issues with straightforward and unbiased investigation on prime time; forget it! Only recently during the many-pronged bailout debacle has the news taken a breather to report a few facts about some really important issues. But for the most part I suspect that the media will soon slip back into its bog of pablum with barely an air bubble to show that it had surfaced.

Therefore, since we apparently have a postmodern mediascape where real news has been consigned to the dustbin, where conglomerates control the dispersal of public information and salivate at any opportunity to pull independent sources into the fold, where real journalists have been shackled to a news machine that serves up cold oatmeal with no milk or sugar, where the Fourth Estate is now a business unit that fills the airwaves with Lindsay and Michael and Brittney and Rush, perhaps the best we can do is to designate all news as comedy and insist that all news reporters wear a hat festooned with bells.

Maybe then we could get the real news.

Posted by Paul on September 22, 2008

Which Will Come First in the Presidential/Veep Debates, the Chicken or the Egg? Answer: The Lemon Juice

With the formal debates between the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates about to begin, what better time to revisit Justin Kruger and David Dunning’s 1999 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “Unskilled and unaware of it”?

These Cornell University psychologists asked a group of undergraduates to take a battery of tests, including one to assess their skills of logical reasoning. What the researchers confirmed are probably among the most important findings in the history of the study of the mind.

What they found was that:

• The more incompetent people are, the more confidence they have in their own competence.
• The more incompetent people are, the less competence they have in recognizing competence in others.
• Even very competent people tend to overestimate the competence of others.

Neurologist Robert Burton makes the Kruger-Dunning article the centerpiece of an article in Salon.com warning that the upcoming debates are going to tell us next to nothing about what we really need and deserve to know about the candidates for the nation’s highest offices.

Even though it will likely never happen in a Presidential debate, here is what Burton would like to see happen:

• How the candidates respond when they are stumped. In his words, are they evasive, flustered or straightforward in admitting what they don't know or understand?
• How they each would respond when shown evidence that they are wrong. Burton wonders, “Is he or she capable of admitting to having made an error? Would he or she be flexible enough to change an opinion?”
• How adroit is each candidate’s intellectual grasp of scientific method when it comes to answering “difficult, complex questions about aspects of science such as global warming, stem-cell research or alternative energy sources for which they may not have adequate knowledge”?
• How does each candidate explain “faith-based” beliefs that he or she continues to hold that are in conflict with traditional reasoning and scientific method?

Burton says that knowing about such qualities of mind are critical in deciding which leaders are most capable of making the best decisions in bad times.

Americans’ experience with their current President is much on Burton’s mind as he reflects on the issue of how leaders adjudge their own levels of competence and the competence of others.

He writes, “Many of the failures of post-9/11 American policy were caused by or aggravated by the inability of our president to recognize his intellectual limitations (including his choice of advisors), keep an open mind, evaluate evidence such as the presence or absence of weapons of mass destruction, and listen to all sides of a complex issue. Perhaps this could have been avoided if Bush had been forced to publicly answer serious multifaceted questions prior to the election.”

Kruger and Dunning wrote about a person who held up two Pittsburgh banks in 1995 in broad daylight with no effort to disguise himself. He was quickly arrested after the surveillance tapes were shown on the 11 o’clock news. When the robber saw the tapes, he was incredulous. “But I wore the juice,” he mumbled. He had been under the impression that if he smeared lemon juice on his face, he would be invisible to the cameras.

We have had a President for the past eight years who appears to be a strong believer in a version of “the lemon juice effect.”

Because the upcoming debates will be conducted the way these debates are usually conducted—in controlled conditions that have been rehearsed to a fare-thee-well—we can have little confidence that we won’t get another President with the same susceptibilities.

Because whatever happens in these debates, we won’t be able to take a very good measure of the candidates’ thinking abilities when they must confront complex situations for which they don’t know the answers.

But then would it really matter if we all did get a genuine look at the candidates’ competency level at handling the kinds of issues that Presidents of the United States must handle. Dr. Burton isn’t sanguine. That’s because we nearly all will bring such strong feelings about the candidates to the debates. Again and again, Dr. Burton points out, feelings trump reason. (That is, "felt knowledge" triumphs "reasoned knowledge."). Because of the way our minds work, we all tend to rub lemon juice on our candidate’s face.

It is not a situation calculated to build confidence in our ability to select as President the person best equipped to keep lemon juice—and egg—off the nation’s face.

For Justin Kruger and David Dunning’s article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, go here: Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments
For Robert Burton’s article in Salon.com, go here: My candidate, myself

Posted by Dudley on September 22, 2008

The Only Real Mystery in the American Presidential Campaign Is Who’s Going to Win. Otherwise, the Whole Campaign Makes for a Great Fish Story

In the tumultuous wake of the GOP Convention in America and the startling veep candidate selection that could put the likes of Alaska’s No. 1 hockey mom within one aging heartbeat of the so-called “most powerful job in the world,” we’ve had more than one of our readers remark among the lines of this Colorado non-hockey-mom: “I honestly can't still understand how they [the Republicans] get away with so much. I think I spent most of the night [watching Gov. Palin speak and the run-up activities] just shaking my head at the bravado and BS.”

But then, as we reminded this concerned Colorado mother and community organizer, who was an Obama supporter at the Democratic convention, she really shouldn’t have been surprised at either the behaviors or content of the GOP Convention (or the Democratic Convention either, for that matter) or a lot of the other developments in this showcase of political marathons. Much of the story line is actually as predictable as hurricanes in warm summer waters.

That's because one of the most real things in the world is the way nature works. And people are part of nature. And people’s beliefs are a part of nature. And people’s beliefs, especially in the aggregate, are hugely more predicable than most people believe.

In terms of the Yo!Dolphin! Worldview Survey™ model, which we at Brain Technologies believe to have few peers in its ability to explain “the inner ecology” of people, the dynamics driving the Republican Party and the McCain campaign’s strategy can be explained quite simply as shark belief users skillfully manipulating Carp belief users.

In an as yet unreleased book, my colleague, Paul Kordis, and I have prepared extensive descriptions of the American Carp belief structure’s internal dialogue—the one that the user of this worldview turns to, moment by moment, day in and day out, to explain the world to her/himself. Here’s some of that self-referential inner American Carp dialogue from our unpublished work:

“I don’t go in for a lot of highfalutin talk about airy-fairy social causes or the like. I simply do my share to eradicate the obvious evils that are plaguing our families, our jobs, our schools and our neighborhoods.

“I am against abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex, atheism, high-and-mighty science and the separation of church and state.

“I think our religious values should be taught in school and kids should be made to behave accordingly. I think that criminals should be afraid of the law and that harsh punishment is the only deterrent to crime.

“I’m not afraid of laws that invade people’s privacy because I have nothing to hide and these laws keep me safe from people who do. I think sex offenders are the worst people in the world and that more people than you could imagine worship Satan in secret and that these people all too often infiltrate every level of the secular world to spread their poison. The media is especially in the hands of bleeding liberals and hardened atheists. The minds of our children are being turned against us and it is our responsibility to do what it takes to keep them in line and on the right path, even if we have to administer harsh punishment.

“I also believe that the poor and the outcast have become so because of their impurity, non-belief and unrighteousness. Their sin has driven them from the creator and their earthly pain is the result, plain and simple. Therefore, those who have achieved authority, power and success are examples of the divine favor due to those who have kept the word of the prophets and followed the path outlines in our holy texts. They are just in their judgment of others, as am I. We are the righteous and the pious and have every right to incriminate against the sinner. We all have our place in creation; we should follow the commands of those above us and those beneath us should likewise follow our direction and moral authority.

“In the same sense my country is favored by the Almighty and is fated to reign supreme among the other nations. Our wars are pure and right, our forms of government and economic activity are by far the best in the world. We have discovered the true path in all things and other nations must be made to be like us if they are to avoid our wrath and the just punishment for their transgressions. There are many enemies in the world who hate us and envy our righteousness, our freedom and our possessions. But our leaders will crush them and our military power, therefore, must be unequaled. There are also many among us who would destroy us from within. Therefore, our national and local authorities will root them out and punish them and thwart them from their evil plans. And if this means that we must give up some of our liberties then the price is worth it. Our security is more important than our freedom and our obedience is more important than our dissent.

“Evil will continue to threaten our faith and our existence until the Almighty reappears, along with the holy prophets and the departed faithful, and takes the throne of this world, destroying the parasites among us and establishing the kingdom of righteousness on earth. Until that time our war against evil is perpetual and is our destiny and our responsibility. We cannot relent and we cannot compromise but must stand firm in our might and our principles, among which are our faith not only in spiritual matters but in governmental and economic matters as well.

“I don’t know a lot about the big dealings going on with money. I just know that we have a right to prosperity because it is our due as a loyal, hard working and law-abiding people. Besides, this country should be built on trade, on people buying things from each other and making the nation strong and prosperous. The most worthy are the most successful, and I aim to be one of those people some day, so it doesn’t hurt if I buy myself and my family a few things now and then. We deserve a piece of the good life this country has to offer and if I have to borrow a few dollars I know that I can trust those who lend money to me to handle all of the details. I pay my bills and I know that providence will provide if I live a good life.

“If we choose people in authority who support our beliefs and values then it will benefit us all and makes all of us prosperous. Those are well off buy the things that the rest of us provide and eventually we all benefit. Without them, we wouldn’t have jobs or the other good things in life. Therefore, we should praise their success and do what we can to contribute to it. Prosperity flows from our way of life to everyone’s benefit and must not be hindered. The only people who really suffer are the leaches who don’t want to take personal responsibility.

“In the same sense our environment is given to us to use as we wish to establish our dominion over it and to mine its riches as the reward for our virtue and our obedience. Creation is abundant and we cannot begin to take away from what has been provided for us. But, if the unrighteous and unbelievers possess lands and resources that are valuable to us then it is our duty to use them for our own purposes, for the sake of our government, our economy and our faith.”

You can feel the fear and resentment of the Carp worldview user throughout this description, and it is the American Carp worldview user’s fear and resentment that the American Shark worldview users are so skillfully manipulating—again!—in the 2008 American Presidential election.

What’s the antidote for those who seek a saner, more factually based, more humane and more hopeful, more competent and most complex America?

The political strategists on both sides of the great voter divide have it right. The battle is one of the diehard Carp and Shark worldview users versus all the rest. Can enough votes from gradually awakening Carp users and disaffected and concerned Shark users be combined with the First Dolphin, Prime Dolphin and Deep See-Change Dolphin worldview users' votes to win the day on November 5 in the quest for control of the American Electoral College?

This time around, our prognosticative skills are no better than anyone else’s. Our prediction is either Obama or McCain by a hair. It makes for fascinating political theater. If only the outcome were not so important, for America and the remainder of the world.

Posted by Dudley on September 06, 2008

The Irony of Virtuous Evil

First published in 1952 by Charles Scribner’s Sons, Reinhold Niebuhr’s book entitled The Irony of American History is again available in a new edition from the University of Chicago Press.

You might think, "That’s nice. But how can a book written in 1952 be relevant now?" And that would be a very appropriate question. So my reply is, "The Olympics." Which itself might bring up a host of other questions and, therefore, requires an extended explanation –

While attending the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games this summer President Bush made some fairly remarkable pronouncements. He was being interviewed on television by Bob Costas and Bob asked him how he felt about the recent military confrontation between Russia and Georgia. Part of the conversation, as quoted on whitehouse.gov, proceeded as follows:

COSTAS: Moving away from China for just a second. During the Opening Ceremony we saw you conferring with Vladimir Putin.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

COSTAS: We now know you were talking about the conflict that had erupted that day…

THE PRESIDENT: That's true.

COSTAS: …between Russia and Georgia. Now, Georgia is a former Soviet republic that is sympathetic to the West…

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

COSTAS: …and that is attempting to embody many Western values. But just as you need China, you need Russia strategically around the globe. You’ve got to walk a fine line. What did you say to Putin?

THE PRESIDENT: I said this violence is unacceptable… I not only said it to Vladimir Putin, I've said it to the President of the country, Dmitriy Medvedev. And my administration has been engaged with both sides in this, trying to get a cease-fire, and saying that the status quo ante for all troops should be August 6th. And, look, I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia.

It was just interesting to me that here we are trying to promote peace and harmony and we're witnessing a conflict take place.

COSTAS: Right, no Olympic truce in this case.

THE PRESIDENT: There wasn't. And I was very firm with Vladimir Putin... he and I have got a good relationship… just like I was firm with the Russian President. And hopefully this will get resolved peacefully. There needs to be an international mediation there for the South Ossetia issue.

Earlier in Washington, according to AFP.com, President Bush warned Russia to end its conflict in Georgia, claiming that Russia might be attempting to overthrow Georgia’s government. He also strongly urged Moscow to accept a Europe-backed peace plan that included a pulling back of all military forces.

He asserted:

Russia's government must respect Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Russian government must reverse the course it appears to be on and accept this peace agreement as a first step toward resolving this conflict….Russia's actions this week have raised serious questions about its intentions in Georgia and the region. These actions have substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world.

"Hmmm," you might say, "That sounds a lot like what’s been going on in Iraq for nearly six years… and how the world feels about it." "How ironic," Niebuhr might exclaim.

You see, Niebuhr’s book was a bit of a prescient warning. Niebuhr suggested that no matter what altruistic and noble and righteous motives we attribute to our actions, we very likely have some selfish and unwholesome motives lurking underneath. Therefore, we must be very, very careful when we choose to exercise power.

He even more strongly cautions us against:

"…Those who are ready to cover every ambiguity of good and evil in our actions by the frantic insistence that any measure taken in a good cause must be unequivocally virtuous."

p. 5

Claiming that the power of human self-deception is apparently endless Niebuhr goes on to quote John Adams:

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all His laws. Our passions, ambitions, avarice, love and resentment, etc., possess so much metaphysical subtlety and so much overpowering eloquence that they insinuate themselves into the understanding and the conscience and convert both to their party."

p. 21

And then Niebuhr observes:

"For the fact is that every nation is caught in the moral paradox of refusing to go to war unless it can be proved that the national interest is imperiled, and of continuing in the war only by proving that something much more than national interest is at stake."

p. 36

And according to Niebuhr, America from its beginning has been in possession of a messianic consciousness and a messianic dream, that is, we were chosen by the creator to lead the world from barbarism and night into the shining dawn of a New Jerusalem.

So once again he warns us:

"But the American experience represents a particularly unique and ironic refutation of the illusion in all such dreams. The illusion about the possibility of managing historical destiny from any particular standpoint in history… miscalculations about both the power and the wisdom of the managers and of the weakness and the manageability of… [that] which is to be managed.

"Consistent with the… hope of redeeming history, the American Messianic dream is vague about the political or other power which would be required to subject all recalcitrant wills to the one will which is informed by the true vision….

"Today the success of America in world politics depends upon its ability to establish community with many nations, despite the hazards created by pride of power on the one hand and the envy of the weak on the other. This success requires a modest awareness of the contingent elements in the values and ideals of our devotion, even when they appear to us to be universally valid; and a generous appreciation of the valid elements in the practices and institutions of other nations though they deviate from our own. In other words, our success in world politics necessitates a disavowal of the pretentious elements in our original dream, and a recognition of the values and virtues which enter into history in unpredictable ways…"

p. 72, 79

Therefore, according to Niebuhr, we must avoid at all cost substituting a more grievous error for the error that we are challenging. And one of the errors we may impose through substitution is the notion that an immoral behavior committed by someone who is considered good becomes moral. And by the same token an identical behavior when committed by someone who is considered evil remains immutably immoral. In other words, the act itself is viewed completely differently depending on whether the actor is first seen as good or evil.

Obviously our current administration sees itself as chosen of God and as being his moral agent. It also sees those who would oppose this moral agency as evil doers. Therefore, the behavior of this administration is considered to be quite different from that of the evil doers even if it is, in fact, exactly the same. And through the same manipulation any irony regarding the pot calling the kettle black is lost.

President Bush seems quite fond of quoting the Bible, especially the passage that admonishes us to clear the log from our own eye before criticizing the speck in another’s. Perhaps even this irony is lost as he admonishes Putin and Medvedev to respect another country’s sovereignty, and the opinion of the rest of the world, because he himself is trying so very hard to promote peace and harmony. Perhaps it even becomes a divine comedy that Dante in his more ambitious moments would applaud.

Posted by Paul on September 05, 2008