In the enticing elegiac Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery shares the following reflection (p. 107):
“Civilization is the mastery of violence, the triumph, constantly challenged, over the aggressive nature of primates. For primates we have been and primates we shall remain, however often we learn to find joy in a camellia on moss. This is the very purpose of education. What does education imply? One must offer camellias on moss, tirelessly, in order to escape the natural impulses of our species, because these impulses do not change, and continually threaten the fragile equilibrium of survival….In fact, when the struggle to dominate our primate aggressiveness takes up arms as powerful as books and words, the undertaking is an easy one…”
What do you think about Barbery’s words? Would you like to add anything?
Anyone who swears to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” is promising not to commit lies of commission (making ”bald-faced lies”), lies of omissions (leaving out critical facts), or lies of influence (making deceptive statements designed to influence the listener’s judgments regarding truthfulness rather than providing a truthful response). Fact-checking services can be useful for identifying lies of commission but are less likely to identify lies of omission and lies of influence—we’ll help you learn to recognize those forms of deception.
Spy the lie, by former CIA agents Houston, Floyd, and Carcinero, provides some useful examples of deceptive answers people provide when they don’t want to tell the truth. Here are some examples, illustrated by recent answers to human rights questions that officials seem reluctant to answer honestly:
1.
A response that fails to answer the question—for example:
Question:
“Are children still being separated from their parents at the U.S. border?”
Deceptive
answer: “Our goal is always to
reunify children and teenagers with a relative or appropriate sponsor.”
2. Minimizing the level of concern warranted by an issue—for example,
Question: “What about all the negative reports concerning how the migrant children are being treated?”
Deceptive answer: “With
regard to family residential centers, the best way to describe them is more
like a summer camp.”
3. Going into attack mode—for example:
Question: Can you account for
the missing migrant children?
Deceptive answer: Unfortunately, some who ostensibly care about these children refuse to address why they are here: the loopholes in our immigration system. (emphasis added)
Your assignment: Watch for these forms of deception when viewing responses to challenging questions, while keeping in mind that honest people sometimes show one of these “symptoms of deception” without necessarily being liars. It’s the pattern, the repetition of deceptive statements, you want to watch out for.
Beware the purveyors of mind games. Author: Christine Barie
by Kathie MM
From its inception in 2010, a major goal of Engaging Peace has been to encourage peace-minded, justice-oriented folks to proceed from study to action. By that, we mean using understandings from research evidence and scientifically-based theories to engage in activism on behalf of peace and social justice.
As part of this
endeavor, we have focused on two major sets of psychological understanding:
Dr. Roy Eidelson’s exposé of mind games—that is, the psychological manipulations used by the one percenters who try with some success to rule the world (see, for example, here and here and here .
My own work on the moral disengagement processes promoted by the power mongers who seek only to enrich their pockets and their influence (see, for example, here and here and here .
If you are a peace and social justice advocate, or a person who would like to see life survive for another hundred years on this planet, you are probably aware that the earth and the life it sustains are in great peril. These dangers are turbocharged by the movement towards fascism and authoritarian control, and supported by propaganda and disinformation.
The mind games, lies, and distortions will only multiply during this 2019-2020 pre-election period.
To support you in facing this scourge, Engaging Peace will build on the recommendations of Dr. Eidelson for innoculating yourself against the destructive mind games of the one percenters. We–all of us–must be prepared to stop them in their efforts to terrorize and deceive ordinary people into being their compliant puppets.
In addition, we will focus more on the forms of moral engagement that help people resist power monger efforts to disengage them from universal moral principles such as the Golden Rule (see here and here ).
Grounded in the theory and research of Peace Psychology, our blog posts and newsletter will help you navigate the treacherous language, propaganda, and fear tactics so prevalent in American politics and society today. And we will do this using multimedia—essays, poems, short films, and cartoons!
We are
gearing up now to help you make sense of political language during the upcoming
electoral circus of 2020—and prepare you to take appropriate action.
We will not endorse political parties or candidates—there’s plenty of blame on both sides for the mess the country is in today. Instead, we will offer messages including three major tools to serve you in the struggle:
Information to help you recognize the distortions, manipulations, and downright lies that are inherent in mind games and moral disengagement
Guidelines for protecting your emotional and physical health in the midst of increasing stress (hint: hope helps!)
Actions you can take to promote nonviolence and justice in our nation despite all efforts to keep the public afraid, beaten down, and ready to blame anyone except the people in power for their miseries.
So stay tuned, join the effort, and help build a better world.
Pegean says, Your bonus for visiting Engaging Peace today and joining us in our campaign to unbamboozle recipients of manipulative mind games is this link to a free pdf copy of Dr. Eidelson’s bookPolitical MInd Games!
I cannot even say those words (“When will they ever learn?”) without Pete Seeger’s ballad, “Where have all the flowers gone,” flooding my brain. We had such optimism in the sixties, despite the vile and catastrophic assassinations of JFK , MLK,, and RFK, such hope that people would study war no more. But the current era is more bloodthirsty and terrifying than ever as the government, the people behind the government, the arms industry, the NRA, and other war profiteers promote and benefit from deadly weapons and the sacking of lands far from our shores.
As is typical of bullies, those responsible for sending our young men and women to kill civilians (that’s who almost all the victims are) refuse to take responsibility for their devastating assaults on human beings and environments. If the power brokers learned any lessons from Vietnam, it was how better to cover up dirty deeds and blame their victims for the violence unleashed upon them.
The Sacking of Falujah: A People’s History by Ross Caputi (a frequent guest author on Engaging Peace), Richard Hil, and Donna Mulhearn takes you behind the scenes of a more recent major bloodletting by the U.S. The book is not only engrossing, but dares to speak truth to power, to describe events as experienced at Falujah not only by the three authors but by dozens of Iraqis who suffered from the second invasion of Iraq and its endlessly deadly aftermath.
Reading this book will not only provide you with hitherto unavailable information about the sacking of Falujah by the US and “Coalition Forces” but also about the events that led up to it—events that the US government is not eager to share or take responsibility for—and the role of that sacking and related events in the rise of ISIS. It will get you thinking about sociocide and urbacide, and information wars. It may also motivate you to think more about our government’s current rhetoric concerning “enemies” in other parts of the world and its threats regarding the selected enemies of today’s regime. You know who the current targets are. Can you ask your Congresspeople to resist complicity?
To view a video of my interview with Ross Caputi about The Sacking of Falujah, go to https://youtu.be/H7KatbFAI6U and send us your comments on this and all engaging peace posts.
