Showing posts with label sociology and culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sociology and culture. Show all posts

Thursday, July 12, 2012

President Obama, Narcissism, and Psychology


Obama Psychology 101

Glenn Beck’s audience gets a Psychology lesson on President Obama from a caller.

Narcissism, by Michelangelo
Narcissism
Beck: Obama has a few predictable patterns: blaming George W. Bush, overspending, and making it all about him. In a 25 minute speech President Obama used the word ‘I’ 113 times – that’s once every 13 seconds. After hearing this, Steven (a psychologist from Indiana) called into the radio program to give Glenn and his radio audience a little lesson in Obama Psychology 101.

This morning on radio played an audio reel put together by CNS News – a compilation that highlights how much emphasis President Obama puts on himself, his opinions, and his beliefs in his speeches.

“He only said it [I] 113 times in a 25 minute speech,” Pat pointed out. “That’s only once every 13 seconds.”

“That’s incredible,” Glenn responded.

Glenn went on to point out that this is a personality trait with Obama, and pointed out the danger that it can lead to if the American people aren’t careful. Glenn noted that the main reason communism usually outlasts fascism is because fascism typically centers on the personality of the dictator – that can only last a lifetime. Communism tends to be about having a dictator. A dictator is replicable, a personality isn’t. Communists can create the illusion that everything is about the people. Glenn noted several examples of how a cult of personality has built around the President and the patterns history shows us repeating.

“Remember when he first, when he was first running?” Glenn asked. “Everybody was like, ‘Okay, let’s not put the seal on the edge of the desk and make it into yours?’ That’s why, when he did become the president elect, he decided that, “I can just change the seal of the presidency and make it the seal of the president elect of the United States.” I’ve never even seen that before. It’s why his followers put his face on our flag – you didn’t see that with Ronald Reagan. Did you see Ronald Reagan’s face on the flag when he was running? No. Of course not, because it was about America. It was about the workers. It was about the people. It was about the ideas. A good leader will never make it about him. He’ll make it about the ideas. Why would the 9/12 project outlast any other of these grassroots? If it would outlast, it would outlast because of the values and the principles. Make it about the values and the principles. Not the personalities. Not about the election, not about let’s get this guy out, but the values and principles. The values and principles are the only thing that will ever last. That’s not what this man is creating.”

Glenn pointed back to audio he played earlier in the show of Obama senior campaign advisor Robert Gibbs spreading lies about Mitt Romney in an interview with Candy Crowley on CNN. This administration knows that their followers are not going to look up the facts, and that’s all that really matters to them.

After hearing this, Steven, a psychiatrist in Indiana, called into the show and told Glenn and his listener how well known this behavior is in the world of psychiatry – it would be too uncomfortable for Obama’s followers to find out their leader was lying to them.

“I agree with you that the truth is the heart of what we need to point out, but when the truth is not being told, what the people are telling from the Obama administration is, ‘You need to believe, believe, believe, believe. Believe me, I was just handed a can of worms that I couldn’t possibly turn the ship around in less than four years. I didn’t know how bad it was. Believe me.’ The word “believe” means there is no proof,” Steven pointed out. “He says the word “believe” more than any president I’ve ever hold, and I’m an old man, I think.”

“It’s disturbing how much he says ‘believe me’,” Glenn added, “and ‘trust me.’ I learned early on from my grandfather anybody who says ‘trust me, don’t trust them.’”

The caller also pointed out the other key factor about using terms like “trust” and “believe” is that they can’t be looked up.

“You cannot look up, “Is there a god.” I mean, if you use the truth and honesty and facts, I always say to people never let facts get in the way of a good argument but, you know, I mean, the fact is Jesus should never have been crucified. It was left up to the people. And the people at that time went with their gut. And that’s what’s happening with our country. We go more with the gut than we do the fact,” Steven said.

Next, Glenn put America on the psychiatrist’s couch. “We’re a patient. You know, the United States of America is a patient that walks into your office and says, ‘I believe in this guy. He’s not abusing me. He tells me he loves me.’ You as a shrink, how do you get them to see the truth and lead them there so they become a stronger person?” Glenn asked.

“It’s more personality, and that’s one thing that Romney has to get involved in is developing his personality that he becomes likeable,” Steven answered.

He [Steven] later added, “In going away from somebody who’s abusing you, you’ve got to first look at the fact that there is an alternative. Is there something else out there and why would it attract me. And so you’ve got to become attracted to the individual, the idea, and that’s what happened with Obama back in 2007 2008. Everybody got attracted to hope and change. Believe, you know. As you said, the use of the free election heel on his plane was a genius. It was almost like he was preordained to become our minister, our savior, our president. So he was a genius at psychology.”

Note: As Glenn pointed out, this is an example of personality cult. Some people, like Romney, don't have exciting or celebrity personalities, but they have better character. This is important to keep in mind. For a great study in character, read Being George Washington, by Glenn Beck. ~CD

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Ten Commandments and Life Quotes

Dinner Topics for Friday
Ten Commandments and Life Quotes
Our Moral Code


“We have been spending our moral capital with the same reckless abandon that we have been spending our financial capital. …
“There are large parts of [the world] where religion is a thing of the past and there is no counter-voice to the culture of buy it, spend it, wear it, flaunt it, because you’re worth it. The message is that morality is passé, conscience is for wimps, and the single overriding command is ‘Thou shalt not be found out.’”1~Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s Chief Rabbi

Ten Commandments
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. …
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. …
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. …
“Honour thy father and thy mother. …
“Thou shalt not kill.
“Thou shalt not commit adultery.
“Thou shalt not steal.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness. …
“Thou shalt not covet.” (Exodus 20:3-4,7-8,12-17)
Our code of conduct is definitive; it is not negotiable. It is found not only in the Ten Commandments but also in the Sermon on the Mount, given to us by the Savior when He walked upon the earth. It is found throughout His teachings. It is found in the words of modern revelation. ~Thomas S. Monson

Sociology and Culture
Article by David Brooks, distinguished Notre Dame Sociologist
“The interviewers asked open-ended questions about right and wrong, moral dilemmas and the meaning of life. In the rambling answers, … you see the young people groping to say anything sensible on these matters. But they just don’t have the categories or vocabulary to do so.
“When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot.”
“The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. ‘It’s personal,’ the respondents typically said. ‘It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?’
“Rejecting blind deference to authority, many of the young people have gone off to the other extreme [saying]: ‘I would do what I thought made me happy or how I felt. I have no other way of knowing what to do but how I internally feel.’”
Those who conducted the interviews emphasized that the majority of the young people with whom they spoke had “not been given the resources—by schools, institutions [or] families—to cultivate their moral intuitions.”1 David Brooks, “If it Feels Right. . .”, New York Times, Sept. 12, 2011, nytimes.com

There is no middle ground. We are followers of Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in His Church and His gospel, and we should not use a visa to visit Babylon or act like one of its citizens. ~Dallin H. Oaks

Discernment
 30 And again I would exhort you that ye would acome unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good bgift, and ctouch not the evil gift, nor the dunclean thing. Moroni 10:30
15 For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to ajudge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.
16 For behold, the aSpirit of Christ is given to every bman, that he may cknow good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.
 17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do aevil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.
 18 And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the alight by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same bjudgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged.
 19 Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the alight of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a bchild of Christ. ~ Moroni 7:15-19