INRM
20th April 2004, 10:32 PM
I was thinking about this. I was doing some research on performance-enhancing drugs and I even joined a group on Yahoo which discussed this subject. No I'm not using them.
There was another group which discussed why people are so willing to do wrong to get ahead in America. Like why businessmen resort to dirty tricks more often, why athletes are testing positive for steroids left and right, and other such things.
I began thinking about it. Here is what 3.5 lbs of neurons and a possible spirit (not certain here) came up with.
Reason 1
PSYCHOLOGY: In America over the past 30 years, psychology has become quite commonplace. Lots of psychological diagnoses explain lots of characteristics about human behavior. Psychologists are quick to label a person as having one personality trait or another. The problem is they often treat them as if they are always excuses for a persons behavior, as if they absolve the person of their actions. Not all mental-illnesses affect you so badly that you are totally powerless, yet the often make it off to be that way. While certain illnesses, such as Schizophrenia, are so bad that people are virtually, if not totally (maybe John Nash was an exception) powerless against it, many others such as depression are often not so bad as to be totally debilitating; many can function with mild, to moderate depression. Many people often believe that any psychological diagnosis can be used to absolve bad behavior. People who often do undesirable behavior will often use psychological diagnoses (even if it is not valid) as a crutch for their behavior. The fact that people, modern day, will allow people to use these diagnoses as a crutch, and absolve them of their actions, only causes people to live their life believing they are not responsible for their actions. People also have begun to adopt the posture that as long as they can make an excuse for something, it's okay.
In the old days, people tried to make excuses for their behavior before, but the medical establishment, and scientists rarely backed them up. Excuses for bad-behavior was generally not accepted. It often got you into hotter water. Perhaps this was a good thing. It tought people to take responsibility for their actions. Imagine in the past if someone tried to say "I'm sorry I said all that stuff, but I've been feeling down, and I've been suffering from depression." They would have been told "I don't care what you have, what you said was inexcusable, you have to learn how to control yourself." But now, not only has psychology allowed people to make excuses for their actions, but they are recognized scientifically and medically, which gives them a lot more weight. Now a person who holds a person responsible for their actions because they're acting inappropriately is viewed as hard-(synonym for donkey), or "old-school", or backward.
Not that I'm saying the old days are always good. Many bad things happened in the past, but the fact that people were encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, was good.
Reason 2
TECHNOLOGY: Not that all technology is bad, I am not anti-technology, but I do think that technology has brought along some bad with the good. Since technology can do things so fast and so quickly, people don't feel as if they need to develop patience. They want things instantly, and without waiting. People are unwilling to do things the slow way, even if the slow way is more reliable, or safer. The lack of patience in our society has caused many people to take a preferance for cutting corners to get the result because it would be faster than doing it "the right way". If these corner-cutting measures are illegal, so be it. After all, they are under so much pressure that they felt trapped, and they felt as if there was no way out, and that was the only way they felt it possible to survive. (See Reason 1: PSYCHOLOGY).
Reason 3
COMPETITION & GREED: People are very competitive, part of it is just animal-nature (animals can be competitive too-- we are basically super-complex animals.), and part of it is the internet, and digital technology, and a 24-hour workplace. People are in a hurry all the time, and people are constantly competing. Some industries are deregulated now, when they used to be-- The Airline Industry is one of them. There are reasons why industries are regulated. It's so that the place doesn't turn into an "Anything goes" Lord of the Flies environment. Of course, people don't like being regulated, and I understand it's wrong to be so regulated you can't do anything, but no regulations when it comes to businesses can be suicide. Only the fastest, most clever, and (often) the most devious people can frequently succeed.
People are under such pressure to succeed that they are often tempted to resort to dirty behavior or underhanded tricks to get ahead. Sometimes their very job depends on them outperforming their competitors, such as athletes. He who can jump the highest, run the farthests, run the fastest, throw the furthest pass, throw the hardest punch, shoot the farthest shot goes ahead. The rest are viewed as next to nobodies, or at least, they don't get massive endorsements and get to appear on Pepsi Commercials. Many athletes have not resisted the temptation to take a drug which would make them throw a little harder, or hit a little faster. Maybe that wasn't their game, maybe they wanted to run a little faster, or jump a little higher. There are drugs for all of these things. An entire science of medicine devoted to producing medication which enhances the athletic performance of the human body for the purpose of playing sports has been conceived. There also is a science of medicine devoted to catching people using medicines devoted to enhancing athletic performance, but athletes devise ways to avoid being detected. Athletes sometimes still resort to using performance-enhancing drugs. Business-wise, many people, ironically the ones that are highest-up in the food-chain often resort to dirty-tricks to get ahead. It's not just about having millions, it's about making more millions than all your competitors. Some people resort to corporate-espionage, and others resort to outright fraud. Enron, for example, comes to mind. Basically the company was not doing so good, so they devised a scheme of creating a bunch of fake companies which they would establish trade with. They would trade with them in such a way so that only Enron would make money, and they would lose. Basically, Enron would look wealthy beyong their wildest imagination, and these other fake companies, if anyone even knew they existed, would appear to be in ruins. (I'm not certain if this part is exactly true, but from what I read, it appears to make sense.) Ultimately, to my knowledge, even that didn't work perfectly, and their stock price started to fall. With billons of dollars, they were unwilling to lose it all, so they told people in their own company to buy their stocks. And they did, they bought stocks, some even using their pensions and 401K's to do it. All the stocks being bought probably brought the stock price up one final time. At that precise moment, the heads of Enron dumped all their stocks as fast as they could, and the company went down faster than Monica Lewinsky on Bill Clinton.
Enron's actions were not just an example of excessive competition, they were examples of greed. It's amazing how companies that make billions still fixate on money. As I said, it's not entirely on just the billions, it's about making more of them than the opponents. The greed aggrivates the competition.
Reason 4
ACCOUNTABILITY: People do not hold people accountable enough for their actions. Some people are evolved enough to behave even without fear of punishment, many are not, however, and are immature and need to be in constant threat of punishment to have a reason to behave. If some people are not held accountable for their actions, they will do virtually whatever they feel like and society will plummet into ruins. The bulk of people who do wrong things to get ahead are often quick to avoid accountability because they are good at making excuses. It generally seems that in this modern day, an excuse nullifies the bad act, and that as long as you can make an excuse, you can avoid punishment. The fact that psychology is very commonly recognized, even in courts sometimes, makes it very difficult to hold sneaky people accountable for their actions. Some people will make any excuse, they were beat up as a kid, someone teased them, etc, to justify their actions, because they know, an excuse will nullify the bad act and will exempt them.
People need to learn how to take responsibility for their actions. 20-40 years ago, all these ridiculous excuses wouldn't have been tolerated. It was generally encouraged to take responsibility for their actions and own up to their actions. Nobody really wants to take responsibility for their actions, but it has to be done, or society will crumble.
I remember reading a quote by a Captain (USN), named Robert L. Leuschner (He commanded the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Enterprise from 1983 to 1986) during the end of his command in 1986. The article was titled "Leadership and Accountability". It read: "If our nation's civilian society would practice accountability more scrupulously, there would be far less negligence, crime and corruption in our country, and for all its wonderful qualities already, the United States would be much more like the ideal our forefathers had in mind". Leuschner was actually regarded as a jerk by his crew, and lots of them, behind his back, called him Captain Lucifer, and Captain Loser, but despite all his crazy antics, and fanatical attitude, he was actually right on that one point. When I say it, I don't mean spying on everyone like Big Brother to make sure everyone behaves. I mean not tolerating bulls**t from people making excuses for intolerable behavior to avoid punishment for their actions, and holding them accountable for their behavior.
Reason 5
DISCIPLINE: I think people are lacking that lately. People don't seem to have anywhere near the same self-control as they did years back. Part of it is a lack of patience, and the belief that they are not accountable for their actions because of some kind of psychological diagnosis. People act very immature when it comes to behavior. The gym I work at, for example. The lifeguards there are practically never paying attention, just when the door opens, they look at the door to make sure the person is male/female, or their boss. Then they grab a clicker which counts how many people are there, and click one labled "MALE" and the other labled "FEMALE" to gauge how many men go in, versus how many females go in. Other than that, they are doing their homework, talking on the phone, playing cards on their cell, and even chatting using their cell as a mobile device. Granted, this is anecdotal evidence, but if you really want, I can take a small camera into the gym and record the whole thing and post it up on some cheap webspace for you all to watch... but I think it would be better for now if you just took my word.
Part of it is the fact that parents don't raise their kids right. They side with the kid no matter what. Even if the teacher told them that their child was trying to set a fire, they'd say "That's not the child I know..." -- of course not, you work 14 hours a day, your spouse does the same, so neither of you are home to watch your kid, they do whatever they want most of the time, and they've become so manipulative because they figure they can avoid punishment if they can act angelic in front of you, so they have you totally snowed and you're so naive you must have your head 5 inches up your (synonym for donkey) to achieve such levels of ignorance. The other problem is they don't monitor their kids. I don't mean use a camera, I mean just watch your kid. They don't do a very good job of watching their kids, or making sure they don't misbehave. Of course, since people work so much, there is very little time to take care of the children, or spend "quality time" with them, but if 10 different people are saying your kid is a big fat bully who is tormenting other children, I think it's time to start considering it as a possibility.
Some parents try to be the child's friend. That isn't always possible. Sometimes parents have a duty to lay down the law. It doesn't mean the parent doesn't love the child, it just means that their job involves making sure that child behaves when he's supposed to.
I might be missing other variables, but I think I got most of them.
-INRM
There was another group which discussed why people are so willing to do wrong to get ahead in America. Like why businessmen resort to dirty tricks more often, why athletes are testing positive for steroids left and right, and other such things.
I began thinking about it. Here is what 3.5 lbs of neurons and a possible spirit (not certain here) came up with.
Reason 1
PSYCHOLOGY: In America over the past 30 years, psychology has become quite commonplace. Lots of psychological diagnoses explain lots of characteristics about human behavior. Psychologists are quick to label a person as having one personality trait or another. The problem is they often treat them as if they are always excuses for a persons behavior, as if they absolve the person of their actions. Not all mental-illnesses affect you so badly that you are totally powerless, yet the often make it off to be that way. While certain illnesses, such as Schizophrenia, are so bad that people are virtually, if not totally (maybe John Nash was an exception) powerless against it, many others such as depression are often not so bad as to be totally debilitating; many can function with mild, to moderate depression. Many people often believe that any psychological diagnosis can be used to absolve bad behavior. People who often do undesirable behavior will often use psychological diagnoses (even if it is not valid) as a crutch for their behavior. The fact that people, modern day, will allow people to use these diagnoses as a crutch, and absolve them of their actions, only causes people to live their life believing they are not responsible for their actions. People also have begun to adopt the posture that as long as they can make an excuse for something, it's okay.
In the old days, people tried to make excuses for their behavior before, but the medical establishment, and scientists rarely backed them up. Excuses for bad-behavior was generally not accepted. It often got you into hotter water. Perhaps this was a good thing. It tought people to take responsibility for their actions. Imagine in the past if someone tried to say "I'm sorry I said all that stuff, but I've been feeling down, and I've been suffering from depression." They would have been told "I don't care what you have, what you said was inexcusable, you have to learn how to control yourself." But now, not only has psychology allowed people to make excuses for their actions, but they are recognized scientifically and medically, which gives them a lot more weight. Now a person who holds a person responsible for their actions because they're acting inappropriately is viewed as hard-(synonym for donkey), or "old-school", or backward.
Not that I'm saying the old days are always good. Many bad things happened in the past, but the fact that people were encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, was good.
Reason 2
TECHNOLOGY: Not that all technology is bad, I am not anti-technology, but I do think that technology has brought along some bad with the good. Since technology can do things so fast and so quickly, people don't feel as if they need to develop patience. They want things instantly, and without waiting. People are unwilling to do things the slow way, even if the slow way is more reliable, or safer. The lack of patience in our society has caused many people to take a preferance for cutting corners to get the result because it would be faster than doing it "the right way". If these corner-cutting measures are illegal, so be it. After all, they are under so much pressure that they felt trapped, and they felt as if there was no way out, and that was the only way they felt it possible to survive. (See Reason 1: PSYCHOLOGY).
Reason 3
COMPETITION & GREED: People are very competitive, part of it is just animal-nature (animals can be competitive too-- we are basically super-complex animals.), and part of it is the internet, and digital technology, and a 24-hour workplace. People are in a hurry all the time, and people are constantly competing. Some industries are deregulated now, when they used to be-- The Airline Industry is one of them. There are reasons why industries are regulated. It's so that the place doesn't turn into an "Anything goes" Lord of the Flies environment. Of course, people don't like being regulated, and I understand it's wrong to be so regulated you can't do anything, but no regulations when it comes to businesses can be suicide. Only the fastest, most clever, and (often) the most devious people can frequently succeed.
People are under such pressure to succeed that they are often tempted to resort to dirty behavior or underhanded tricks to get ahead. Sometimes their very job depends on them outperforming their competitors, such as athletes. He who can jump the highest, run the farthests, run the fastest, throw the furthest pass, throw the hardest punch, shoot the farthest shot goes ahead. The rest are viewed as next to nobodies, or at least, they don't get massive endorsements and get to appear on Pepsi Commercials. Many athletes have not resisted the temptation to take a drug which would make them throw a little harder, or hit a little faster. Maybe that wasn't their game, maybe they wanted to run a little faster, or jump a little higher. There are drugs for all of these things. An entire science of medicine devoted to producing medication which enhances the athletic performance of the human body for the purpose of playing sports has been conceived. There also is a science of medicine devoted to catching people using medicines devoted to enhancing athletic performance, but athletes devise ways to avoid being detected. Athletes sometimes still resort to using performance-enhancing drugs. Business-wise, many people, ironically the ones that are highest-up in the food-chain often resort to dirty-tricks to get ahead. It's not just about having millions, it's about making more millions than all your competitors. Some people resort to corporate-espionage, and others resort to outright fraud. Enron, for example, comes to mind. Basically the company was not doing so good, so they devised a scheme of creating a bunch of fake companies which they would establish trade with. They would trade with them in such a way so that only Enron would make money, and they would lose. Basically, Enron would look wealthy beyong their wildest imagination, and these other fake companies, if anyone even knew they existed, would appear to be in ruins. (I'm not certain if this part is exactly true, but from what I read, it appears to make sense.) Ultimately, to my knowledge, even that didn't work perfectly, and their stock price started to fall. With billons of dollars, they were unwilling to lose it all, so they told people in their own company to buy their stocks. And they did, they bought stocks, some even using their pensions and 401K's to do it. All the stocks being bought probably brought the stock price up one final time. At that precise moment, the heads of Enron dumped all their stocks as fast as they could, and the company went down faster than Monica Lewinsky on Bill Clinton.
Enron's actions were not just an example of excessive competition, they were examples of greed. It's amazing how companies that make billions still fixate on money. As I said, it's not entirely on just the billions, it's about making more of them than the opponents. The greed aggrivates the competition.
Reason 4
ACCOUNTABILITY: People do not hold people accountable enough for their actions. Some people are evolved enough to behave even without fear of punishment, many are not, however, and are immature and need to be in constant threat of punishment to have a reason to behave. If some people are not held accountable for their actions, they will do virtually whatever they feel like and society will plummet into ruins. The bulk of people who do wrong things to get ahead are often quick to avoid accountability because they are good at making excuses. It generally seems that in this modern day, an excuse nullifies the bad act, and that as long as you can make an excuse, you can avoid punishment. The fact that psychology is very commonly recognized, even in courts sometimes, makes it very difficult to hold sneaky people accountable for their actions. Some people will make any excuse, they were beat up as a kid, someone teased them, etc, to justify their actions, because they know, an excuse will nullify the bad act and will exempt them.
People need to learn how to take responsibility for their actions. 20-40 years ago, all these ridiculous excuses wouldn't have been tolerated. It was generally encouraged to take responsibility for their actions and own up to their actions. Nobody really wants to take responsibility for their actions, but it has to be done, or society will crumble.
I remember reading a quote by a Captain (USN), named Robert L. Leuschner (He commanded the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Enterprise from 1983 to 1986) during the end of his command in 1986. The article was titled "Leadership and Accountability". It read: "If our nation's civilian society would practice accountability more scrupulously, there would be far less negligence, crime and corruption in our country, and for all its wonderful qualities already, the United States would be much more like the ideal our forefathers had in mind". Leuschner was actually regarded as a jerk by his crew, and lots of them, behind his back, called him Captain Lucifer, and Captain Loser, but despite all his crazy antics, and fanatical attitude, he was actually right on that one point. When I say it, I don't mean spying on everyone like Big Brother to make sure everyone behaves. I mean not tolerating bulls**t from people making excuses for intolerable behavior to avoid punishment for their actions, and holding them accountable for their behavior.
Reason 5
DISCIPLINE: I think people are lacking that lately. People don't seem to have anywhere near the same self-control as they did years back. Part of it is a lack of patience, and the belief that they are not accountable for their actions because of some kind of psychological diagnosis. People act very immature when it comes to behavior. The gym I work at, for example. The lifeguards there are practically never paying attention, just when the door opens, they look at the door to make sure the person is male/female, or their boss. Then they grab a clicker which counts how many people are there, and click one labled "MALE" and the other labled "FEMALE" to gauge how many men go in, versus how many females go in. Other than that, they are doing their homework, talking on the phone, playing cards on their cell, and even chatting using their cell as a mobile device. Granted, this is anecdotal evidence, but if you really want, I can take a small camera into the gym and record the whole thing and post it up on some cheap webspace for you all to watch... but I think it would be better for now if you just took my word.
Part of it is the fact that parents don't raise their kids right. They side with the kid no matter what. Even if the teacher told them that their child was trying to set a fire, they'd say "That's not the child I know..." -- of course not, you work 14 hours a day, your spouse does the same, so neither of you are home to watch your kid, they do whatever they want most of the time, and they've become so manipulative because they figure they can avoid punishment if they can act angelic in front of you, so they have you totally snowed and you're so naive you must have your head 5 inches up your (synonym for donkey) to achieve such levels of ignorance. The other problem is they don't monitor their kids. I don't mean use a camera, I mean just watch your kid. They don't do a very good job of watching their kids, or making sure they don't misbehave. Of course, since people work so much, there is very little time to take care of the children, or spend "quality time" with them, but if 10 different people are saying your kid is a big fat bully who is tormenting other children, I think it's time to start considering it as a possibility.
Some parents try to be the child's friend. That isn't always possible. Sometimes parents have a duty to lay down the law. It doesn't mean the parent doesn't love the child, it just means that their job involves making sure that child behaves when he's supposed to.
I might be missing other variables, but I think I got most of them.
-INRM