Global Integrity 9

Hiding Hypocrisy
...at all levels
Moral wholeness for a whole world

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Luke 12:1

Do you not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump of dough?
I Corinthians 5:6.

Integrity is moral wholeness—living consistently in moral wholeness. Its opposite is corruption, the distortion, perversion, and deterioration of moral goodness, resulting in the exploitation of people. Global integrity is moral wholeness at all levels in our world—from the individual to the institutional to the international. Global integrity is requisite for “building the future we want—being the people we need.” It is not easy, it is not always black and white, and it can be risky. These entries explore the many facets of integrity with a view towards the global efforts to promote sustainable development and wellbeing.

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Integrity does not mean perfection. It does mean though that if one makes a mistake or does something wrong, then he/she is willing to acknowledge it, and as necessary apologize and make amends. So integrity at all levels involves a commitment to act with moral wholeness, realizing that one will fall short of the moral mark. It also means understanding that we may try to rationalize away our responsibility for our mistakes or wrongdoings: hypocrisy. Hypocrisy can trump integrity. And I think we are all guilty of this at times. So...we must trust ourselves to act with integrity, but not trust ourselves completely.

The excerpt below is from a guest weblog I (Kelly) did recently for the CHS Alliance (24 February 2016). The title is Ten Psychological Tricks for Avoiding Accountability. It could also be titled: Ten Tricks for Feigning Integrity or Ten Tricks for Hiding Hypocrisy.

Hiding Hypocrisy
“Here are ten tactics used to avoid accountability for mistakes, poor practice, dysfunction, and outright deviance…These tactics illustrate what not to do when we and our organisations are asked to give an account of our work - be it via routine self-assessments or requests to explain our actions. They can serve to minimise cognitive dissonance, to protect ourselves, or to intentionally misrepresent the facts. Understanding how we can get it wrong can be a helpful way to avoid some of these proven “tactical tricks” for avoiding accountability.

1. Delegate the matter to someone else internally - diffuse it, distance yourself from it - and do everything to avoid an internal and especially an independent review.

2. Avoid, reword, or repackage, the issues - obfuscate the facts, or at least talk tentatively or vaguely about some mistakes in the past and that you or someone could probably have done a better job on … but go no further; rationalise and/or disguise any culpability.

3. Focus on minor or “other” things so as to look like you are focusing on the central things, punctuating it all with the language of transparency and accountability."

Applications

--Have a look at all 10 Tricks. Are there any that apply to you?

--What do you think of the assertion that we can ' trust ourselves but not completely'?

JC et al.--Living in Truth 6

Self-Justification

It's just amazing how other people get stuck...
 

"Most people, when directly confronted by evidence that they are wrong, do not change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously. Even irrefutable evidence is rarely enough to pierce the mental armor of self-justification…."

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"That is why self-justification is more powerful and more dangerous than the explicit lie. It allows people to convince themselves that what they did was the best thing they could have done. In fact, come to think of it, it was the right thing. “There was nothing else I could have done.” “Actually, it was a brilliant solution to the problem.” “It was doing the best for the nation.”…."

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"Now between the conscious lie to fool others and unconscious self-justification to fool ourselves lies a fascinating gray area, patrolled by that unreliable, self-serving historian—memory. Memories are often pruned and shaped by an ego-enhancing bias that blurs the edges of past events, softens culpability, and distorts what really happened…Over time, as the self-serving distortions of memory kick in and we forget or distort past events, we may come to believe our own lies, little by little….Before long, we have persuaded ourselves, believing privately what we originally said publically…."

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"Yet mindless self-justification, like quicksand, can draw us deeper into disaster. It blocks our ability to even see our errors, let alone correct them. It distorts reality, keeping us from getting all the information we need and assessing issues clearly. It prolongs and widens rifts between lovers, friends, and nations. It keeps us from letting go of unhealthy habits. It permits the guilty to avoid taking responsibility for their deeds. And it keeps many professionals from changing outdated attitudes and procedures that can be harmful to the public. "

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Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts,  Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, 2007; excerpts from pages 4-10

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You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men,
but God knows your hearts;

for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

(Luke 16:15)

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Note: Matthew 23 goes into far more detail about the hypocrisy and consequences of our self-justifications—especially for people with leadership positions and personas.