Dear Friends,
It seems to me, People, all people, act in our own self interest. It is possible then, to reason from emphatic self interest or in other words, discerning motivations, to predict actions. When confronted with a fire, for example, a self interested person will refrain from touching it. We can predict that any person of reasoned mind, will not touch a fire, from our understanding of self interest. The media and government are both made up of self interested human beings. If we discern their motivations we can predict what they will do. Out of our understanding of self interest.
If government was doing it’s job well, there would be no crime, wars, poverty or oppression. Were that the case, the power of government would necessarily be low, the people would not watch the news as there would be none of any interest, and so both entities would suffer economic, status and political power. Self interested people don’t willingly suffer economic, status and political loss. We can then predict that people in the media and government are motivated to create the conditions where crime, poverty, oppression and wars abound, so bureaucrats and politicians can hold and grab more power prestige and wealth. Meanwhile, the media has plenty of human suffering to display, and nothing sells like blood. It is in the self interest of people in the media and government then… to create wars, crime, poverty and unrest.
Obviously a civilized person would not create suffering in the world just to get rich, laid and powerful. But our world, society and indeed civilization itself, doesn’t value the civilization in a person. In fact we are programmed in a plethora of ways, not to be civilized, but barbarians. Put a ten thousand dollar suit on a barbarian and all you have is a well tailored savage. A savage who will not blink at crossing any bridge then turning around and burning it behind her. People naturally gravitate to the golden mean, the civilizational norm of behavior if you will, so even the most human hearted person is probably going to follow their self interest, before servicing their debt to civilization. Making self interest all the easier to follow.
Since the dross floats to the top, a much higher percentage of people in positions of power are likely to be psychopaths, and studies have proven this to be true. Those who are psychopaths have no brakes. Psychopathy is an emotional disorder. The psychopath has no empathy, no mercy, loves excitement, considers others inferior, loves to manipulate others especially into self harm, and have a natural charisma. Making them particularly drawn to, and suitable for, for the political arena. Which means many people in positions of power are totally controlled by their self interest.
People have an extraordinary way of self justification. We justify our actions, to ourselves, as a means to disassociate ourselves from guilt. From… the woman raped in the bar had it coming for being in that bar in the first place, to destroying the first step on the economic ladder by raising the minimum wage because it helps the poor, we can justify our outrageous actions to ourselves and our partners in crime, by twisting logic into a Gordian knot. When confronted by a strong motivation even the person not psychopathic, outside the effects of the culture, can self justify actions he or she would never otherwise do… when the crowd does it first. Add in the cultural rot in our morality, along with the natural concentration of psychopaths in executive, political and bureaucratic positions, and you have the perfect storm.
The media has an incentive then to report news in a distorted way to foment trouble. It is not only in the interest of the producers and owners but from the news anchor to the camera person, everyone in that industry has an inducement to create suffering in the world. Violence draws viewers, viewers draw advertisers, and advertisers pay money. Viewers also impart the power to effect the culture. If it is in the self interest of people in media, a group with a higher than normal percentage of psychopaths, human beings who’s morals have been rotted by our toxic culture, and have the extraordinary human ability to self justify any action, and you will have a media that is toxic to the moral, civil and political culture.
So, we have the core reason government never works well, it is not in the self interest of those running it to do so. The media will report distorted news to create more war, crime, outrage, civil unrest and corrode our culture itself, to their own ends. Government cannot ever solve a problem because that would mean the laying off of thousands of bureaucrats! The incentives for people to create good government, government that is not in the way, with low crime, no war and civil harmony are not existent. Every inducement is to go the other way. Perhaps that is why so many civilizations have risen in virtue and fallen in vice. How do we know this again? Because it is in the elite’s self interest to do so.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
