Posts Tagged self-deception

Tiger Woods: Breach of (Unfair) Contract? Hypocrisy & (Self)-Deception

Tiger Woods: a free man?

The Tiger Woods scandal has many facets. I wrote that Tiger Woods is a free man entitled to have fun and Tiger Woods sex addiction treatment is an absurdity.

Tiger sold his freedom to have fun & right to privacy for US$ 100 Million

People countered: Tiger sold his freedom for 100 Million dollars, He made advertising contracts as being a "good boy" athlete: Hey, Tiger, Lack of Privacy Is Part of the DealTiger Woods has destroyed $12 Billion in Stock value So maybe, after having charged huge amounts of money for his "clean boy" image, it is his moral and legal obligation to keep up to moral standard he himself agreed to. Like a catholic priest who signed a celibacy vow and now has to keep it. 

Why Is Tiger Woods in Trouble? It’s Not His Steamy Sex Life; It’s His Family Values Hypocrisy: Woods made most of his fortune through his “squeaky-clean model athlete” reputation. Last year, of the $117 million Woods made, $7.7 million was on the golf course; the rest came from endorsement deals. And that endorsement empire is built on the image of a hardworking, clean-living family man with wife, kids, dogs, and “values”.

Tiger Woods And Global Media Hypocrisy
Tiger Woods, Linford Christie and the stars who are sworn to the Hypocrisy Oath
Bob Schieffer To Tiger Woods: Stop Whining (VIDEO)

Breach of contract. But is the contract fair?

Of course, he also signed a marriage "contract" with fidelity vows. He broke the contract. I think it is unfair that the terms of a marriage are non-negotiable. Consumer and tenant law has invalidated many such one-sided contracts, but "feminist" law-makers make sure that men cannot easily negotiate freedom in marriage contracts.

So men who want to retain their freedom have only the choice not to marry, or do what men (and apes before them) did for millions of years: cheat and lie to cover up. Promise what women want to hear, and then secretly do what the man himself wants to do.

Deception

Deception is huge part of human social life.  Our education and social norms demand honesty, and in contradiction to that they also demand politeness, courtesy, ….  From "I am fine" when I feel bad, to "your dress looks great" when I think it is awful, to "I have eyes only for you and love you forever".  In spite of us lying constantly, we feel we are honest. We deceive ourselves that we are honest.

Self-Deception & Self-Deception

You deceive better if you yourself believe in it.

So Tiger probably believed in his wedding vows. He also believes he is an honest person. Which usually he is. Except for white lies. And lying to spouses. Well and to sponsors and the rest of the world.

And before you throw the first stone: think of your own secrets. What if the press published your photo nose-picking? or about some secret sexual urge you once followed?

And now all these hypocrites condemn poor Tiger Woods. Of course, if you are a public relations manager for Nike, your job is to worry about Nike’s sales and corporate image. Not about hypocrisy, or if the same people who condemn Tiger (and Nike for promoting him) are hypocrites. Try YouTube to see some Tiger Woods commercials: they all manipulate your unconscious: they don’t really sell you superior merchandise, they associate Tiger’s image with the product, thus making you buy the product.

  • Maybe the problem is that we demand unrealistic role models, who are supposed confirm unrealistic moral norms?
  • Maybe the problem is that society demands that we lie about romantic "transgressions".
  • Most healthy adolescent boys or adult men would probably admire Woods for his sexual conquests. When talking to their peers. But, of course, would not admit this to their wives.

Should male promiscuity be repressed or sexual freedom be tolerated?

  • There are of course philosophical questions: is monogamy better? there will be less fights, less diseases? or better family life?
  • Is male promiscuity something that should be eliminated by therapy, drugs etc because it causes problems?
  • Or do repressive laws, false morality cause the problems?  People should just be honest, open and be allowed to have fun without any need to hide. Why can’t everyone have their sexual freedom, and we devote out resources to avoiding unwanted pregnancies and diseases, instead of spying after celebrities’ private life.

Hypocritical double standards about domestic violence

Tiger Woods’ wife Elin should be under investigation for domestic violence:  The first news stories sounded suspicious: How can an intelligent man total his car and get face injuries when backing out his car from the garage? And require a women with a golf club to break the windshield to free him? 

If the suspected victim were a women, police would investigate, even if the victim denied violence having happened. But Elin is a woman, and police and law are biased in favor of women. If she were innocent, they should have demanded an investigation to dispel any doubt.

I think Tiger lied when he swore in public that no domestic violence has happened. If this could be proven to be a lie, then Woods would be proven to make false public statements . An explicit public lie, almost an oath, that could haunt him (like Bill Clinton).

But as now Tiger’s and Elin’s interest in cover-up coincide, nobody will ever admit the truth. Of course, this can cost him dearly. A domestic violence conviction would greatly favor Tiger in any potential divorce settlement. If he was intelligent, he made her sign something in exchange for his covering up the domestic violence.

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Self Deception: "False beliefs are helpful" paradox

Life is complicated. There actually are paradoxes that are very hard to solve.

Example: I am convinced religion is wrong. There is no God. But, on the other hand there is lots of research proving “miracles” of religion like

  1. Imagine a poor, uneducated, violent neighborhood. If any church can gain foothold there, crime decreases, the entire community starts improving and working better. It is good, it is an improvement. So even if the church teaches wrong things, even if the church is run by a fraudster who just wants to siphon away part 10% of the faithful’s income (Tenth, Tithe), the church can have a positive effect. It is false, but it does good.
  2. James Randi (”Flim Flam”) is a great guy who relentlessly preaches against false beliefs, astrology, wonder healers, dowsing rods etc.
  3. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions by James Randi $22.98 0879751983 James Randi has a US$ 1 Million bet that anyone can win who can show any paranormal effect to him. He never had to pay. For example, James Randi debunked a US$ 1000 dowsing rod that was sold to US police departments. These dowsing rods could identify criminals! But James Randi himself admits that the dowsing rods worked. They helped police identify criminals they otherwise would not have identified.
  4. People who are very religious, people who have supersticious beliefs about their breast cancer recover better then average from breast cancer (research by Professor Shelley Taylor). So if you take their beliefs away, you are reducing their chances of recovery. Positive Illusions by Shelley E Taylor $16.95 0465060528

  5. Health Psychology by Shelley E. Taylor $64.50 0071283609
  6. Placebo effect in Medicine: if you believe in healing power, you have a good chance of getting healed. And the more invasive the method is the better it works. A huge european study on acupuncture found that sticking needles into someone has a stronger placebo effect then pills. So let us assume that acupuncture and homeopathy are quackery ( I don’t want to discuss the merit of this here and now). But it has effects when done by a professional doctor who is strongly enough self deceived that he honestly believes in it.

So maybe the truth does harm. Very disturbing idea! Maybe I should start praising the virtues of human stupidity, self deception and unconsciousness.

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Conservative and Religious Hypocrites are biggest Porn Consumers in USA

Peer reviewed scientific journals report:

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election. Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama. [...]

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behaviour.”

 

More details about conservative and religious hypocrites consuming porn

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Social evolution and social influence: selfishness, deception, self-deception

Reprinted with permission of the Author
University of California at Los Angeles

Social evolution and social influence: selfishness, deception, self-deception

(download PDF version of the paper)


I. TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Table of contents 2

II. Rationality, consciousness, sincerity 3

A. Unconsciousness and irrationality: the myth of rationality 3
B. Deception: the myth of sincerity 4
C. Hypotheses of this paper: an overview 5

III. Evolutionary theory 6

A. Ultimate reasons 6
B. The survival of the fittest 7
C. Inclusive fitness and altruism: the selfish gene 7
D. Validity of evolutionary theory for humans 10
E. The influence of group living 11
F. War and intergroup violence: group selection revisited 13
G. Learning and culture 15

IV. Deception and impression management 16
Read the entire scholarly paper

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