Tag Archives: lies

Turn the volume up to 11.

28 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by in Character and Competence

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“The needle of our conscience is as good a compass as any.” Ruth Wolff

I write about Conscience in some detail in my book The Three Resolutions. I write about how a conscience is developed and how we all have one, even the criminals amongst us. I also write about how, in identifying our most important priorities and values, we can utilise that inner voice to direct us in our daily activities. The conscience is a core ingredient of our character.

When we listen to our conscience, we live lives of peace and productivity. When we ignore it, we feel guilt, angst, and occasionally some confusion.

Yet ignore it we so often do. We actively seek to stifle it when something potentially pleasurable presents itself to us. We don’t want to miss out on that attractive experience, and so we ignore the conscience, or turn its volume down to 1. To add to the stifling effect, we raise the volume on the ‘Why I CAN do/have this’ button, to make sure we can hear what is calling us forward to the psycho-hypocrisy that is about to occur. We find a rational excuse for what we are about to do and lie to ourselves. As Covey put it, we tell ourselves Rational-lies. Then, immediately or soon after we execute on the lie we just told ourselves, we feel that pang of guilt.

Conscience does not go away.

No, I am not a saint and I am as guilty of this as anyone. Perhaps more so, in the sense that as a writer on the subject I find myself doing it when perhaps I ought to be setting an example. I am often extremely conscious of that expression, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

On the plus side, however, this knowledge and understanding arguably presents me with a better opportunity for positive change, eventually. Those who don’t realise what they are doing have no motive to change. They don’t know that they can.

Funny thing is, they will spend a lot of time justifying their poor behaviour. They will argue quite strongly and loudly that the behaviour they are displaying is okay, for some reason or other. (Good examples are smoking and drinking.)

The funniest thing about their shouting is because they know while they are doing it, they (and I quote), “ignore the conscience, or turn its volume down to 1. To add to the stifling effect, they raise the volume on the ‘Why I CAN do/have this’ button, to make sure they and we can hear what is calling them forward to the psycho-hypocrisy that is occurring.”

Now where have I read that, before?

Lies, damned lies and statistics. What would YOU do about them?

04 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by in General

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Three days ago I wrote about truth. One of the lessons I have learned over many years of the study of Dr Covey’s works has been this – what we are being told is rarely, ever, the wholly accurate truth. That use of the gap between stimulus and response which contains self-awareness, creative imagination, independent will and conscience has awakened me to how much people’s bias or motives intrude upon communication and debate.

This week the press reported that there had been an upsurge in complaints against the (British) police, up to 35,000 recorded in the latest recorded year. One paper said that was evidence of a police force that did not respect the people. Many complaints were for ‘incivility’, some for ‘neglect of duty’.

Of course some complaints are justified. Some are genuine misunderstandings about what was and was not possible (based on watching NCIS and The Bill). Occasionally it is a procedural complaint that a process failed.

But the media was focused on the numbers, but it notably left some numbers unreported, or unrecorded. And they did no analysis of their own.

For example – 35,000 complaints among 140,000 officers meant only one in four officers was ever complained about, and complained about only once in that year. In hundreds and hundreds of interactions, in 200 days of working. Takes the tint off a bit.

Next, no measure was provided about how many of those complaints were be people later charged, or convicted in connection with the incident giving rise to the complaint. I’d ask this because (and this may surprise you) some criminals/people are dishonest.

Of course, you can’t measure complaints by those who just won’t listen – people who lose things insisting on a ‘crime report’; people who instigate fights complaining that they were assaulted; people who ‘think’ they know the law – but patently don’t.

That reminds me about one person who didn’t complain, but he arguably could have. I was parked blocking a road with my marked police car, blue lights flashing. A man drove up.

“Can I drive through, officer?”

“Only if one of us is a ghost, sir,” I replied. Sarcasm. Not allowed any more.

Anyway, this particular newspaper report hit close to home, it’s something I know a lot about. I was once ‘top of the force’ for complaints (preen, preen) and I know how much some of them are instigated by defence lawyers as a bargaining chip.

What is the situation like in your own sector – are people lying – sorry, being disingenuous about you and your colleagues?

If so, could you apply the Third Resolution and do something about it?