Truth vs Falsehood (34 page)

All the above denote a pervasive negative trend that undermines the integrity of the intellectual world and its social commentators. The underlying myth is that being critical (negative) is “cool,” superior, and indicative of “intelligence” and, therefore, of superiority (calibrates as “false”).

Criticalness actually calibrates low because it is more often an expression of envy, niggardly smallness, and spite out of jealousy. A “big” person accords recognition and respect for excellence, and the “prune minded” begrudges such recognition out of inner spiritual miserliness. The small-minded person hates that which is praised, like an envious schoolchild hates the recognition given to the best students.

Criticalness as an attitude is a defect, not a virtue. Mature evaluation weighs all sides of an issue but does not interject negative emotionality. It reviews rather than denigrates. Paradoxically, denigration (cal. 185) diminishes the stature of the critic rather than that of the target of ill will. The difference is due to motivation and intent. A true critic reflects appreciation of value and merit and is therefore “balanced.” A spurious ‘critic’ tries to look important via ‘cheap shots’.

The low calibrations of the above indicate serious departure from integrous truth and the catering to narcissistic self-interests that result in perceptual distortions and socially projected misinterpretations. The common basis is the ego’s protest at having to give up its egocentric, imaginary sovereignty to self-control and rationality, which the infantile ego resents and sees as obstructionist limitations to impulse gratification. All authority is resented and hated, and thus arises the dualistic victim/perpetrator paranoid distortion that is then projected onto society as an “out there” perceptual distortion, with grave consequences to society. A striking example is that of Karl Marx (cal. level 130), whose paranoid distortions became the basis for the death of many millions of people at the hands of Lenin (cal. level 70) and Stalin (cal. level 90), plus the Cold War, the KGB, American double agents, and near-nuclear war. Marx then lived on in the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School of Philosophic Relativism (see later in this chapter). At the other extreme, the fallacious theories of fascism resulted in the massive death and destruction of World War II that was built upon fallacious propaganda of philosophical error. Truth brings peace and falsehood brings war, as also exemplified by the cultural wars that are polarizing current society.

Rejection of rationality and integrous logic (termed “misology”) forms the basis for rejection of ethics and morality. This undermines support for balanced, mature codes of behavior that counterbalance social anarchy and hedonistic excess. Without structure and order, social behaviors become like an engine without a governor or a flywheel and collapse into chaos.

Historically, political extremism has been the invitational open door to revolution and takeover by the other extreme wing, which has been reinforced by protesters of the prior excesses. The Buddha warned twenty-five hundred years ago to avoid extremes and stay balanced via the “middle way.”

Because the ego’s perception is dualistic, it is preset to fall into paranoia, which is the substructure of all political extremes, either left or right. As noted above, the core error is that the ego’s dualistic, distorted perception sees everything in terms of the perpetrator/victim model (cal. level 130). This releases hatred and the production of the “straw man” who is then subject to vilification that releases malice, hate, and attack (e.g., America as the “great Satan,” or the “political Jihad” of the current “Hate America” campaign). The unfortunate price of becoming the president or leader of a country is that the person then automatically becomes the target for the paranoid projections of personal disgruntlements, as well as the opposing party that bitterly awaits its revenge for imaginary, inflated “wrongs” and therefore initiates a campaign of blame, slander, and propaganda.

The lure of these problematic positionalities is enhanced by the appeal to base emotions that are justified by the ridicule of ethics, reason, and logic. This results in the popular perception of the “politically correct” or the “lunatic fringe,” which is viewed as an effete affectation of narcissistic pseudo-empowerment via artificial ego inflation of being superior to others. It is anti-egalitarian, as indicated by public media posturing and attention seeking. Collectively, people with these impaired perceptions live in an “altered reality” (Pitts, 2004), which is fast losing its initial chic and becoming passé, as it has lost its trendy cachet.

Slander calibrates very low because of the intention, i.e., to injure. (Free speech is a two-edged sword—it cuts down the slanderer as well.) In normal life, the intellect provides corrective balance. The appeal of “pop” attitudes and slogans is to appear
au courant
and be perceived as being within the “elite” celebrity class, with its implied exclusivity. Because of their instant ego inflation, “causes” are widely popular, and the public is bombarded with their endless solicitation propaganda, proselytizing, and emotionality, reinforced by selective polling, junk science, and manipulated statistics. These emanate from all kinds of Orwellian “rights” groups as well as sentimental protestors, “health police,” “language police,” etc.

Paradoxically, the truly elite are unknown to society and avoid publicity and celebrities. They live in very private enclaves and belong to clubs unheard of by the media. Mutual recognition is by subtlety, and pretense is quickly detected by even a single glance or intonation. Distinguishing characteristics of this social class are simplicity and completeness. Nobody “wants” anything or is seeking gain, approval, or recognition, and celebrity status is avoided. Fulfillment results in contentment, which arises from within.

Anyone can have real, genuine “class” by merely accepting who they are at any given moment or level of life. Real class means “genuine.” The world loves really classy waiters, clients, actors, sports stars, cab drivers, and true celebrities (e.g., Satchmo (Louis Armstrong), Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Knute Rockne, Ronald Reagan, etc.). People who feel fulfilled are a “class act” and receive recognition not for rank or popularity but because of their integrity and courage to be “who they are” and thus fully human.

Sophistry

An understanding of how fallacious sophistry propagates century after century is provided by two concepts:

1. The vulnerable consciousness level of 130-195 characterizes a large percentage of the world’s population in every generation, i.e., distribution of the learning curve as a consequence of the evolution of consciousness.

2. The spread or persistence of an idea via a key term, concept, or word is technically called a “meme.” The essential quality of a meme is that, like a computer virus, it is self-propagating, imitative, and has a catchy-phrase attraction. By strict repetition and commonality, the idea is accorded importance or status and therefore a presumptive acceptance as though it were an axiom of successful living. Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in the book
The Selfish Gene
(Dawkins, 1989, 1992).

The central idea of a meme is that it tends to attract repetition and imaginative elaboration, so a story grows over time and accumulates suggestive implications. This is one factor of positive cultural change as well as the persistence of superstitions, vicious propaganda, and fallacies, such as are propagated by gossip, the media, and also the Internet, which has become the biggest library in history of fallacy and disinformation. Memes can also be germinal, constructive concepts that are shorthand for cultural values. Their study is called “memetics” and is of sociological importance (Csikszentmihelyi, 1993; Beck and Cowan, 1996).

Mankind is fortunate that Joseph Goebbels is dead for he would have flooded the Internet with Far Right propaganda so that the percentage of fallacy would exceed even the current level of 65 percent. (Currently, there are more than five thousand ‘hate’ websites.) He was an expert at spreading memes and their disguised hatred. The same technique is now played by Far Left financiers of organized extremist political attacks (O’Reilly, 2005) that plant spurious stories with a network of ‘bloggers’. Negative memes are carefully crafted distortions of reason that hide the underlying motivational forces of malice that fuel social disintegration and staged protest demonstrations that are purportedly spontaneous and genuine but are actually expertly crafted 75 percent of the time. They are designed to influence the naïve and gullible public as well as the media. The Communist party learned the technique over a century ago. The same principles of crowd manipulation are in use today for a variety of supposed ‘causes’. There are thousands of people who are addicted to the thrill of protest for its own sake. The reality or truth is actually irrelevant.

The problem of ‘just’ and ‘unjust’ protest or revolution is quite complex, and adequate coverage would require the writing of a whole text to adequately research the subject, including historical examples, moral/ethical principles, philosophical, spiritual, and religious aspects, as well as legalities, political inference, the circumstances and intentions of all parties involved, and their cultures. Perception is also subject to illusion and distortion, or even delusion (Bittner, 2004). The subject of differentiating freedom fighter (cal. 200) from terrorist (cal. 30) is covered in
Chapter 16
.

Socrates taught that all men seek only the “good” but do not know what that good actually is (e.g., immediate and material, ego gain [being “right”], or long-term spiritual growth). Thus, the resolution and calibrated level of consciousness of each decision represents a concordance of karma, intention, the proximate field of complex influences, and factors both known and unknown. Later criticisms are equally prone to error by virtue of comparing the actual to the hypothetical and “Monday-morning quarterbacking.” Even seemingly integrous intention may sometimes result in social disaster. (“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”)

While approximately 90 percent (by calibration) of public displays of social protest is primarily motivated by romanticized egotism, the remaining 10 percent includes integrity of intention, correct perception and interpretation of all factors, and justification based on confirmable facts and not just on emotionalized opinion. If justification is based on propagandized fallacies, then error is introduced. Neither is moral conviction a reliable basis for action.

Every revolution has its rationalization and rhetoric, appealing only to segments of society. Everyone’s ego likes to think it is embarked on a “noble cause,” including the barbarians, invading hoards, religious militants, shoe bombers, suicidal terrorists, dynamiters of school children, etc.

Americans like to cite the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence as well as the example of Jesus Christ to rationalize situations as latter-day examples of the Boston Tea Party. Seldom, however, does the analogy apply. Nonviolent protests have had equally successful results (e.g., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, etc.).

There is a quick, simple way to diagnose very complex situations by the use of “critical point analysis” (Hawkins, 1995). This identifies the core “attractor field” of an overall, total multifactoral situation, extracts the central fundamental thrust, and dispenses with argument, fallacy, emotionality, and pretense. The core of truth of multiple interacting complexities reveals itself by diagnosing the basic intention. For example, the intention of the U. S. nuclear program overall is 460. The current intention of the Iran nuclear program is 170-190 (December 2004). From the Map of Consciousness, the basic motive reveals itself. Calibration level 190 indicates pride, status, etc. (“Join the Nuclear Club”). Critical point analysis thus is like a laser beam that cuts through the camouflage and subterfuge of political rhetoric and gamesmanship.

Application of this essential diagnostic technique to international relations and prevention of war, along with its implications for survival, is explained in
Chapters 15
and
16
. In ordinary life, quickly revealing the essence and core of a problem has numerous obvious applications to complex social questions.

Because the strength of freedom stems from its source as integrity and truth, vigilance is its safeguard. Therefore, nonintegrous positionalities, despite popularity, cannot just be excused as harmlessly sophomoric and swept under the rug while wisdom says that “unless you’re a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart, but if you’re still a liberal when you’re older, you have no head.” What the axiom fails to state is that in the interim, a lot of damage occurs and millions die. (It takes generations for the fallacies of Marxist communism, totalitarianism, fascism, or religious fanaticism to collapse.) Therefore, socio-political “isms” justify careful scrutiny.

From the previous chart, one can see that emotional rhetoric is a slippery slope from social protest down into demonstrations and crowd violence, and then into protest arson and bombings. Even Mother Theresa refused “anti-war” parades. She comprehended and represented the dictum that “anti-war” is not the same as pro-peace (e.g., anti-vanilla is not pro-chocolate).

It is better to succeed than to “win.” The Parisian enclave of expatriots of the last century brought about literary and artistic social progress and truly greater freedom of expression and creativity. Society is responsive to creative innovation and the inspiration of new discoveries. It was not necessary to attack and defame the old-fashioned kitchen icebox in order to replace it with a modern refrigerator.

Problematic Philosophies