Patrick,
Thats an interesting, thought-provoking article. The cunumdrum is like
the paradox of fish -- they are surrounded by water, but don't notice
water because thats what is always there. Or like a complex loop,
built on layers and layers of deception, genetically refined over
time: we are skillfully programmed to both deceive and to not see the
deception. Or if we get through layer one, there is always layer two. ...
Think about two major areas of secular life: work and relations. The
successful, and thus those that typically breed more and/or their
offspring have higher survival rates and future propogation rates --
are um, good, smooth BSers.
How many couiples, dating, go straight for honesty? In i) presenting
themselves ("how long can I keep up this facade til he/she figures out
who i really am. Well, this new suit or car may help throw them off
guard." ), ii) providing feedback to the other ("you look gorgeous."
"you are SUCH a good lover" ), and iii) privately evaluating
therelationship ("I think this might be the ONE!!".
And once in a relationship, does deception decrease? Deception can
certainly bring stability to the relationship -- and thus increase the
chances for propagating progeny: "Honey do these slacks make my butt
look big?" "NO!!!!!, They make your ass look petite and hot and
totally sexy, You look like you are 18 yr olds".
In business, law, service professions -- the ability to spin, paint
the partial truth in dazzling ways -- foregoing the deeper reality --
is a hallmark of success. Charlie L. used to tell the story of making
his sales calls (he sold cement) with a bright young apprentice. After
some discussion of the merits of his product, Charlie closed the
sale. Thr apprentice said to the customer, " You know that is such a
wise decision Mr. X. You know our competitor's product has xyz and
ours doesn't but you overlooked that because you like our service. The
customer began to waiver and aked questions about xys. Charlie grabbed
the signed contract and hussled the apprentice and he out of the
customers office.
While the school of Professional Selling, which sincerely tries to
understand and meet the customers' need, still ends up employing spin
and deception, in smooth ways, to put the product or deal in the best
light. And of course the seller, promoter, presenter, etc, rationalize
their subtle slight of hand as being whats best for the company,
goodfor society, etc.
Service professionals whose income is based on client sessions --
whether its a doctor, psychologist, ski isntrucor, yoga instructor,
contractor, etc, will always face a grey line when asked to recommend
if more or less sevices are best.
Higher dating and relations success, coupled with higher work success
and thus, often higher incomes, are two driving factors in successful
propigation -- and ensuring the propigation sucess of ones progeny.
Go down this path for 10, 100, 1000 generations and you can see how
deception may well be so inately wired into our system, its hard to
even see the water.
Thats one reason I think a sharp and discriminating use of intellect
is useful, if not vital. It won't in itself bring higher realiations,
but it can get you closer to the door by helping to seperate the wheat
from the chaff, and to keep the charlatans at bay.
--- In [email protected], "Patrick Gillam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> A while back, Akasha and I kicked around
> the topic of whether people who have deceived
> themselves into believing bullshit are actually
> liars, or if their belief in their position changes
> the case. Well, yesterday the Boston Globe ran
> a profile of evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers,
> whose work addresses self-deception from the
> point of view of its value in propagating genes.
> So I thought this post might interest Akasha and
> L B and maybe a few others.
>
> A sidebar worded the thesis this way:
>
> "Whether it's convincing a predator that you're a leaf or fooling
another bird into
> raising your young, deceit is an evolutionary strategy with a long
and innovative
> history. But as evolution selects for better and better cheaters, it
should also select
> for better and better cheating detectors. For example, Trivers
argues, humans
> might have evolved to detect the sort of nervous tics that betray a
lie. But there's a
> counter-strategy: self-deception. If we don't know we're lying, then
we won't act
> like we're lying, and are more likely to get away with it."
>
> More, from the article:
>
> "The book on deceit and self-deception that he's now starting grows
out of a brief
> but widely cited passage from his introduction to Dawkins's ''The
Selfish Gene.'' If
> deceit, he wrote, ''is fundamental to animal communication, then
there must be
> strong selection to spot deception and this ought, in turn, to
select for a degree of
> self-deception, rendering some facts and motives unconscious so as
not to betray-
> by the subtle signs of self-knowledge-the deception being
practiced.'' Thus, the
> idea that the brain evolved to produce ''ever more accurate images
of the world
> must be a very naive view of mental evolution.'' We've evolved, in
other words, to
> delude ourselves so as better to fool others-all in the service of
the great game of
> propagating our genes."
>
> Trivers speaks: ''It's a critical topic. How many pretenders to the
throne have there
> been? Marx had a theory of self-deception, Freud thought he had the
topic
> knocked. So there've been a lot of major-domos in there. None of
that [expletive]
> survived the test of time, so it's a huge opportunity.''
>
> The full article is "The evolutionary revolutionary: In the 1970s,
Robert Trivers
> wrote a series of papers that transformed evolutionary biology. Then
he all but
> disappeared. Now he's back�and ready to rumble."
>
> By Drake Bennett | March 27, 2005
>
> http://tinyurl.com/457kj
>
> - Patrick Gillam
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