THE NAZIS TOO CLAIMED “GOD IS WITH US” AND WORE THAT MEME ON THEIR BELT BUCKLES AS THEY RAPED AND PILLAGED ALL OVER THE WORLD
This is what real critical thinking is all about: Real Eyes trained to spot and “Realize” Real Lies
Tautological Credentialism and Braggadocio: I am the “Best Judge” of Myself and My Capabilities–Just Ask Me
by Jim Craven/Omahkohkiaaiipooyii
Once, actually more than once, I had the distinct pleasure of knowingly passing up any chance of a job during an interview by just refusing to jump through the usual hoops of hiring and playing the game of the typical kind of “manager-leader” type so often found in the HRs and management of corporations, educational institutions, government and other institutions. During an interview, with four people, and now I forget the exact position, it was in teaching in a program for “managers” and “leaders”, but in any case one of them, directing the others, this manager named “Bob”, a real powerhouse “take-charge” kind of guy, sort of a crew-cut, possibly ex-military, asked me during an interview the following question: “O.K. Mr.Craven, now yell me why out of the 10 other finalists that YOU [his emphasis] out of the group are the BEST [his emphasis] candidate for this position.”
I just shook my head over that one. I thought: “Well here we go again. Shit, another one down the drain.”
But I knew instantly I could never work with this guy or his type who would pose such an inane and incompetent question. I looked at him and said to him and then to the other three: “I cannot answer that question and were I to do so or attempt to do so, and worse with with a straight face, and even with feigned “certitude”, as if you should also be certain I am the best candidate because how could I be so certain of my self and my own credentials if I did not have good reason for my certitude?; a typical tactic, then it would mean I was as unfit for the position and should not be hired as who would ever dare to answer, let alone pose, such a question… Bob and the others looked a bit shocked:
Why? Because no one trained in basic logic and critical thinking, and committed to their ongoing application, could seriously pose such an inane and unanswerable question. Why? Because firstly, we have no operating definition or metrics of “BEST” or even of the essential qualities and capabilities that are established and requisite for anyone holding the position being able and competent at the duties of the position.”
This guy Bob looked like he had been hit by a truck and quickly came to visible shock then anger. I went on before he could catch his breath. The other members of the committee also looked at bit shocked but one of them a woman, had a sort of smile or smirk visible and perhaps was anticipating the thrashing that ol Bob was about to get for daring to even pose that question and others he also posed and appeared so proud to have posed…
I continued: “…Secondly, I do not know and have never met, let alone assessed with yet non-existent constructs and metrics of “BEST” and at what, the qualities and capabilities of the other candidates.” Thirdly, I am hardly either disinterested or free of conflict-of-interest; nor am I or can I really the best judge of my own capabilities–we humans are all subject to our own delusions and cognitive dissonance–especially relative to others with whom I am competing for a given position.”
And finally, Bob, whatever capabilities and qualities I might cite in my own submissions (academic degrees, previous and like-positions held, references) all of course assumed to be picked from the favorable not unfavorable, may or may not get me hired for a given position. But neither they, nor my simply being hired for the position, nor my having held previous similar positions, nor my own braggadocio and grandiose self-assessment, can ever automatically credential me as fit now or in the past to hold the position–or that I have the “right stuff” of someone who is.”
Now I had Bob and the others in the committee hooked it appeared. They were just not expecting what they got. I then went on some more and they allowed it perhaps stunned:
“If I hold a degree in say “Educational Leadership” for example, [one of the most fraudulent and useless degrees ever invented and sold like hotcakes in various paper mills] or hold the position of some kind of “Educational Leader”, it neither means I am really, nor am I thus credentialed as, either an “Educator” or “Leader” of anything. My credentials to hold a position really come from the types of activities and responsibilities of my position (formal and informal) and my performance [as measured with standardized constructs and metrics from diverse angles and sources] in the position after being hired; not before or in the mere holding of or having held something like, the position itself…
…This is just as no degree in leadership makes me or credentials me as some kind of leader of anything; and all of this is especially without even one word from those I am purporting to lead. Those who really credential someone in leadership are those being led and how they react to the leadership provided or not provided.
…It is the led who truly credential those who are their leadership and real leaders. For example, the real leaders do not call or differentiate themselves leaders; they are typically put into and kept in leadership positions by those they lead based upon what and how they delivered and did the real stuff of leadership as measured and credentialed by those they were leading and who were putting their lives and jobs on the line. Anyone who has been in the military and in the bush where no rank is worn because snipers like officers and non-coms, knows that one can spot the real leaders and few times are they officers; mostly they are non-coms with a lot of experience. But is by how and why those who defer to them do so, and how the leaders carry themselves and do the stuff of leading, that one will know who are the real leaders as defined by those they lead…
Anyone who seeks a leadership or management degree is in reality asserting and self-anointing himself or herself as having the “right stuff” of leadership and management even in the mere seeking of the degree. Presumably, after they get their degrees or certificates in management and leadership, then they are ready to be parachuted “down” on some future group of “the led” who had no say in the “managers” and “leaders” being parachuted “down” on them. The same applies to politicians, teachers and others who seek formal titles and paper as if those alone certified and credentialed them to have the “right stuff” to occupy the positions they are seeking and to do the real work with the requisite capabilities of the positions they are seeking…
…So Bob, anyone who answers your question among the next candidates, will probably fit in here just fine. But no one’s pompous and hardly disinterested braggadocio about themselves, their own self-assessment of themselves and fitness for the position, can ever constitute any kind of real credentials for anything. What counts is what others say, especially from those with no suspect motives or interests, and if those others are credible in terms of themselves having the real credentials and closeness of experience and contacts to pass on the credentials of others.
…All I can offer and am prepared to offer are some data, performance evaluations, references, blind-peer-reviewed publications, endorsements, awards, honors, public commentary and documents, that I never sought, contrived nor had any hand in originating; with some even from some folks who are not fans or friends, and then let others speak to the issues and questions of my capabilities in general and for this position. Then you can assess all of it as you chose and relative to other candidates I will never know or meet.”
Well of course that did it and after the usual “Well we’ll get back to you if we think that you are our kind of fit and best candidate for working around here.” But by this time I knew it was over and that I had delivered the message I wanted and really needed to deliver. I got up and smiled and just walked out with “Have a nice day”.
But think about what does a resume really say? Go to any chain bookstore like Barnes and Noble and there are whole sections on: “Dress for Success” [or perhaps it should read Dress for Suckcess’]; “Killer Resumes”; “Networking”; “Quick Quotes for Dilettantes”; “Cliffs Notes”. They are all about style over substance; form over content; appearance over reality; claims over real credentials; braggadocio under the banners of “self-esteem” and “assertiveness” and how to feign “certitude”. As Marx–Groucho that is–put it: “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”Groucho Marx
This is how psychopaths and sociopaths work in the target-rich worlds of business, law, politics, education, religion and the military. Most people cannot lie easily and actually are not that certain about themselves or others. But psychopaths and sociopaths, with their typical grandiosity, malignant narcissism, cunning and predatory intent, serial mendacity, are able to lie and project certitude in ways that non-psychopaths and non-sociopaths cannot. So when the average person encounters them, and they can lie and bluff without a “tell”, and when the psycho-sociopaths appear so certain of themselves that they must have some basis for it it seems, then they are able to pass for long periods unchallenged.
Hitler, like all psychopaths had it down to a science”:
All this was inspired by the principle–which is quite true within itself–that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. —Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X[1]
and from Goebbels:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Tautological Credentialism: A Dog Chasing its Tail
What is the evidence that I have the credentials and capabilities to hold this management and leadership position? Well it is in the fact that I presently hold this position and title, and/or held similar positions and titles in the past the implicit and often explicit assertion or rhetorical question then becomes: “How could I have held such positions were I not considered by those hiring to have had the requisite credentials and capabilities for the position?
So here we have a tautology or circular and thus meaningless argument: Question: Why is it I now hold or in the past held this position? Answer: Because I have the credentials to do so. Question: Then what is the evidence of my credentials and credentials for holding the title and and for this position? Answer: Because I hold or held this position and title, that is the evidence that I have the credentials and capabilities to hold this position and/or to have held one with a similar title. A tautology or dog chasing its tail. Like the notion of “Economic Man” who is a supposed maximizer of utility or pleasure as “revealed” in his “preferences”. So another tautology: I maximize utility as evidenced in what I buy and what I buy I buy because it maximizes my utility as I am a perfectly or sufficiently rational, informed, calculating being that whatever I buy maximizes my utility and what maximizes my utility is in what I buy.
But what did/do I actually DO in my present or past positions with certain titles? And how well did I actually do what I actually do or did?
And what about cronyism, nepotism, political patronage, misinformation and disinformation in hiring, promotions and firing? Really? Because if these and other crimes and torts go on routinely, then there is no automatic proof that because someone held or holds any title or position, thus that is the evidence of their credentials, fitness and capabilities to hold the position and to do the duties of it.
On national and global levels we see braggadocio and tautological credentialism in the various memes and themes of American “Manifest Destiny”, “Exceptionalism”, “Triumphalism” and “Exclusivism”. We are somehow destined to rule the world–just ask us. We were destined by “Providence” to be a “City on the Hill” and Beacon for all other nations–just ask us. We are the “Number One” in: progress; development; efficiency; morality; decency; democracy; wealth and quality of life; freedom and liberty; health care; education; military power; global power and standing–just ask us. We controlled most of the 20th Century and the 21st Century will also be the American Century–just ask us.
And it can get worse when highly sensitive positions in government and elsewhere are [increasingly] occupied with people with fake academic degrees and titles http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2004/05/63436?currentPage=all Worst of all is not the costs and harm caused by hiring frauds and poseurs, far worse is the opportunity costs, costs of lost opportunities, all the good that could have been done for so many had the right person been hired.
How many times have you heard something like: “Check out the painting I just did or song I just wrote it is really great, one of my best.. and please tell me what you think”? So I am self-credentialing and self-evaluating my own work and further, indicating how I deem that others should vote on it as well. Billions are spent per year on image; fluff-n-puff the resume; get-rich-quick; test questions and answers for government tests such as for all pilot ratings; in other words, how to appear to be more than one is, rather than trying to be more than one appears to be.
Many scholarly tomes have been written about the rise and fall of “empires” or “civilizations” or “great powers” or “superpowers” or just plain “hegemons”. First of all, they were all doomed to fall under the weight of their own internal contradictions along with the overreach that comes from imperial hubris, power-projections and demand for “Full Spectrum Dominance” Of course history also shows that those nations, systems, rulers or individuals who seek dominance over others, rather than security, prosperity, mutual benefit, equity, are doomed by the Sisyphusean objectives and their own grandiosity. The U.S. Government seeks not only “Full Spectrum Dominance” overall all possible spheres of warfare (land, sea, air, space and cyberspace) but also in weapons systems and defenses against them (conventional, nuclear, CBW, psyops, drones, space, ABM, troop training and readiness, logistics delivery, sanctions, etc) as well as in forms of warfare (convenvional, irregular, COIN, CT, psychological and information, special ops, etc). And all that with unprecedented fiscal and other crises in the U.S. as well as globally.
CARROLL QUIGLEY’S MODEL OF THE RISE AND FALL OF EMPIRES
THINK ABOUT IT–EH