Naiveté
May 6, 2021
AT ITS BEST, naiveté, or the quality of being naive, is a trusting innocence and simplicity.
At its worst, it is hubris and willful stupidity.
Americans suffer from the worst kind of naiveté. Many of them believe others are just as empathetic and altruistic as they are. This is a comforting fantasy. A significant minority of people possess little empathy and high levels of competitive aggressiveness even though they may be outwardly friendly and charming. We live in an intensely competitive world and personalities that want to win at any cost and dominate at any cost are much more common than in the past.
Almost everyone in America is in an abusive relationship with psychopathic manipulators in government. I’m not fond of the terminology of the psychology industry, but it describes what we are seeing and experiencing. One of the fundamentals of these relationships, psychologists often say, is that the abused consent to being manipulated and are often so emotionally drained they can’t protect themselves. Why do they consent? They are naive, too trusting and do not understand the art of manipulation.
In personal lives, the same is often true.
In his book In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People, George K. Simon contends that because they are steeped in the psychotherapeutic belief that disturbed people are psychologically “wounded” from childhood trauma, Americans often do not understand aggressive and manipulative personalities, especially covert manipulators.
Simon’s makes good points:
Covertly aggressive people are generally so good at their craft they don’t need our help in pulling the wool over our eyes. But …. many of our more traditional notions about human nature set us up to be manipulated and exploited. One very significant misconception is the belief that everyone is basically the same. This misconception is common because of the influence of traditional theories [of neurosis] and their premise that everyone is to some degree neurotic. So, it’s extremely important to remember that disordered characters are very different from the average, functional, neurotic. As previously mentioned, they don’t act the same way, and, as years of research has confirmed, they don’t even think the same way. Aggressive personalities are also very different from most other personality types. They don’t share the same world-view or code of conduct. They’re also not influenced or motivated by the same things. In fact, much of what we’ve been taught about why and how most people behave simply doesn’t apply to aggressive personalities.
[Simon Ph.D., George K.. In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People (pp. 106-107). Parkhurst Brothers Publishers Inc. Kindle Edition.]
What Simon is saying about manipulative individuals is applicable to manipulative enterprises, particularly the business of propaganda. Much of what Americans encounter in the news, even major crime stories, is not news in the classic sense, but propaganda. In other words, it is manipulation. Most reporters are not themselves manipulators. The manipulation comes from above through staged events and invisible, unspoken commands that certain things must never be questioned.
“Flatten the curve,” “asymptomatic transmission,” “social distancing,” “excess deaths”— these are some of the buzzwords in the arsenal of supremely effective manipulators. A good example of a celebrity manipulator is Whoopi Goldberg, who recently said she will not be going outside (Hooray!!) until everyone has the shot. “If we don’t all do it…” She portrays herself as compassionate when she, and those she represents, are anything but.
Trust in these news sources and in government, over-run at the top with covert manipulators, is destroying our country.
I call this naiveté a form of hubris because it pridefully denies reality. The naive want things their way, not as they truly are. To be “awake” is to shed this harmful trust, to recognize we live in a fallen world and to begin to understand the tactics of manipulators, who so often conceal their weapons behind sweet promises and reassuring platitudes. Again from Simon:
The covert-aggressive’s dislike of appearing overtly aggressive is as practical as it is face-saving. Manipulators know that if they’re above-board in their aggression, they’ll encounter resistance. Having learned that one of the best ways to “overcome” an obstacle is to “go around” it, they’re adept at fighting unscrupulously yet surreptitiously. Some personality theorists have proposed that the cardinal quality of the covert-aggressive or manipulative personality is that they derive an inordinate sense of exhilaration from pulling the wool over the eyes of their victims. But I believe their main agenda is the same as that of the other aggressive personalities. They just want to win and have found covert ways of fighting to be the most effective way to meet their objective.
(p. 37)
A nation can be conquered by psychological manipulation. But only if its people are naive.
