Morals and hypocrisy

[sphenisc]

I thought I'd post this here to see what other people think - I've no idea if it's true or not as I've never done anything wrong myself. ;)

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/07/05/the_nature_of_temptation/

[chillzero]

Sort of similar to this was a recent BBC article - not so much about weighing your own moral values against other people, but how your behaviour can be altered by your surroundings, making normally unethical or immoral activities seem 'ok'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8133834.stm

Interesting that so many people seem to be relatively easily influenced to behave in a manner they themselves would describe as wrong.

[Oliver]

Sort of similar to this was a recent BBC article - not so much about weighing your own moral values against other people, but how your behaviour can be altered by your surroundings, making normally unethical or immoral activities seem 'ok'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8133834.stm

Interesting that so many people seem to be relatively easily influenced to behave in a manner they themselves would describe as wrong.


But maybe that's the answer. If someone does something he or she considers as being a bad thing, maybe their own misbehavior makes them highlight those moral values. Who knows?`

[Twiler]

Sounds reasonable.

I imagine that the expense fiddles in the UK were probably due to the MPs involved having a sense that they were privileged.

[HansMustermann]

Well, my own... hypothesis... nay, musing, really, is the following: does power corrupt, or do we actually just elect people who were corrupt and immoral to start with? Can it be that simply the biggest turds float to the top of this septic tank?

We know for example that a lot of CEO's are medically speaking psychopaths. Did they become so because of being a CEO, or is it simply that people with more empathy than that don't make it to the top?

A lot of politicians turn out to be lying, cheating, hypocrites. Did they really become that because they're at the top and were tempted off their morals? Or maybe they had to be lying hypocrites to get the votes or the appointment in the first place?

Now I don't have a study to prove the latter, but my own gut feeling kinda leans in that direction.

[Cuddles]

A lot of politicians turn out to be lying, cheating, hypocrites. Did they really become that because they're at the top and were tempted off their morals? Or maybe they had to be lying hypocrites to get the votes or the appointment in the first place?

Now I don't have a study to prove the latter, but my own gut feeling kinda leans in that direction.

Or is it just that we notice the ones who turn out to be lying, cheating hypocrites and ignore the majority who are no such thing because they never make it into the news?

There's really very little point in speculating about why politicians behave a certain way until you can demonstrate that they actually behave that way any more than anyone else.

[Oliver]

Or is it just that we notice the ones who turn out to be lying, cheating hypocrites and ignore the majority who are no such thing because they never make it into the news?

There's really very little point in speculating about why politicians behave a certain way until you can demonstrate that they actually behave that way any more than anyone else.


Politicians failing to fulfil their pre-election promises isn't such a theoretical idea. However, I tend to think that this issue is a seperate one given the pressure on them to get elected. Adultery, Child abuse, criminal and sexual behavior in general etc. aren't related to the pressure of elections, they rather are personal and free choices.