SELF-DECEIT AND ITS DANGERS

 

 

In a revealing article, “Why Doing Good Makes It Easier to Be Bad,” Abbas Panjwani cites examples of how good-doers can have twisted, destructive motives:

 

·       The all-male charity, the President’s Club, which raised money for causes including children’s hospitals through high-valued auctions, was forced to close after the Financial Times uncovered sexual assault and misogyny at its annual dinner; executives of Oxfam, a poverty eradication charity, visited prostitutes while delivering aid in earthquake-stricken Haiti, and were allowed to slink off to other charities, rather than being castigated for their actions; and ex-Save the Children executives Brendan Cox and Justin Forsyth stepped down from their roles at other charities, after allegations of sexual harassment and bullying toward junior female colleagues resurfaced. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-doing-good-makes-it-easier-to-be-bad?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

Panjwani also underpins these examples with some hard research:

 

·       In one paper, economists at the University of Chicago reported that working for a socially responsible company motivated employees to act immorally.

 

·       “The share of cheaters [was] highest when we frame corporate social responsibility as a prosocial act on behalf of workers,” the researchers, John A. List and Fatemeh Momeni, found. When the workers felt a greater sense that their own actions would lead to charitable donations, like Robin Hood, they in turn felt enough license to steal, essentially, from their employer to give to charity. “The ‘doing good’ nature of [corporate social responsibility] induces workers to misbehave on another dimension that hurts the firm,” List and Fatemeh concluded: “When humans are good, we give ourselves license to be bad.”

 

To explain this and other findings, Panjwani invokes “moral licensing theory.” It takes either of two forms:

1.     “I’ve done some good stuff. I’ve shown that I’m a good enough person. Now I can act ambiguously, because, as a good person, I know that my behavior is more likely to be good than bad.” Or…

2.     They had built up enough “moral credit” to justify [their immoral behavior].

 

In either case, they convince themselves that they are now entitled to do some mischief, either because they are good or do good.

 

What are the implications of this perverse human tendency? For one thing, we have to be cautious about judging by appearances alone. Self-deception runs deep, far deeper than the eye can see. This also pertain to us. We too must become cognizant of our twisted motives if we wish to exert some influence over them. Without self-awareness, we allow them to operate unimpeded. It is like a watchman who is aware of encroaching dangers. Without this awareness, he will allow the home to be pillaged.

 

These findings also cast doubt upon our attempts to live the virtuous life. Perhaps, it is not virtuous at all, but another form of self-exaltation – narcissism. Our motives might even morph into the pursuit of a violent idealistic cause. Some have sounded the alarm about these dangers. The late poet, T.S. Elliot, shared this concern:

 

·       Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.  https://heidelblog.net › 2015/07

 

What then will awaken us to these dangers? The love of Jesus alone had enabled me to face myself and to seek self-awareness. It was only through the love and the assurances of His love that I had been enabled to face what had been so depressing about myself. I would see these things, but I would quickly try to suppress this awareness with a steady diet of positive affirmations. It did not matter if they were true as long as they enabled me to face life.

 

The wisdom of self-awareness is available, but we reject it because it is too painful to receive:

·       Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple [ignorant] ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. (Proverbs 1:20–23)

 

Ordinarily, we hate the knowledge of who we really are. My experience (and the Scriptures – John 8:31-32) shows me that self-awareness is not possible without God’s-mercy-awareness. Without this awareness, in depth self-awareness is like inhaling nauseating fumes. It is only by God’s mercy that I can now live with these fumes.