A caveat to begin with: It is easy for me to deceive myself about my lack of self-deception. This is a given of human life in the same way that it is easy to be proud of my humility, or to be hypocritical about my lack of hypocrisy. Strivings to become humble and transparent and self-aware, can provide feelings of accomplishment which lead back into pride and hypocrisy and self-deception. So, if I am going to write about this topic, I need to acknowledge up front that I am aware that I am probably unaware of many of the ways I deceive myself.
I must never lose sight of those other deaths which precede the final physical death, the deaths over which we have some freedom; the death of self-will, self-indulgence, self-deception, all of those self-devices which, instead of making us more fully alive, make us less. — Madeleine L’Engle
That said, as an amateur investigator, I have come up with Mark’s Law of Self-deception: The smarter you are, the easier it is to deceive yourself.
I first observed this in myself in a slightly different form: the smarter I think I am, the easier it is to deceive myself. I remember with horror a time long ago when I had a long discussion with a roommate about how much he owed me for a shared expense. I did the math beautifully and accurately, with the appropriate percentages, and percentages of percentages. I came up with the correct dollar amount. However, in the midst of my calculations I had inadvertently switched who was connected to which numbers. So I presented my roommate with a bill, when in fact, I should have paid him. It would have been apparent to anyone with a lick of sense that I was the debtor in that situation.
Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it makes sense that the smarter anyone is, the easier it is to deceive oneself. We use our intelligence to understand the world. But often we sidetrack that process and use our intelligence simply to come up with explanations that suit us. If these seem to make sense we neglect the essential steps of trying out other explanations and testing all of them out in the real world. The smarter a person is, the easier it is to come up with favored explanations that he can defend, no matter how complex or convoluted. We do this all the time. I regularly catch myself doing it.
The truth will never be complete
in any mind or time. It will never
be reduced to an explanation. (Wendell Berry)
This week I was reminded that my law is far from inclusive. This has come up with the release of excerpts from former FBI director, James Comey’s new book, and the first of his televised interviews. Comey mentioned that he may have been influenced in his decision to announce the reopening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails by the assumption that she would win the 2016 election. He felt compelled to make that announcement in order to protect the independence of the FBI and to lessen any impression that her election was invalid. In making these statements, Comey seems to be a man extremely confident in the rightness of his decisions even as he is unsure of the motives and the information behind them. As I listened to Comey’s reasoning I was reminded that a great desire to do what is right can blind us to the need for the self-reflection which is necessary to actually do what it right.
So I am adding a corollary to my law: The more confident you are in your own integrity, the easier it is to deceive yourself.
It is, of course, always easier to notice self-deception in others than in yourself. But noticing it in others can help us notice it in ourselves. My law—and its corollary—has no meaning if I don’t apply it to myself, and apply it to myself consistently. Knowing that my intelligence and my confidence in my intelligence can lead to self-deception keeps me looking for second and third and fourth explanations which complement or even contradict my favored one. And then I try not to rely on any explanation without looking for ways to test its validity in the world outside of my mind.
Self-deception is a tricky little bugger. The events of this week have made me more aware that my confidence in my integrity can also lead me to deceive myself, and can result in a loss of that very integrity. (I’ll refrain from publishing any personal examples in this post.) Have you ever seen this happen? Has it ever happened to you?
