Narcissism and the Self-Serving Bias

The U.S. intelligence community prefers to excommunicate or expel all who contradict its analytical edicts. If Iranian or Russian defectors are treated dismissively, it’s only because their truth is not acceptable to the American intelligence community (which favors its own version of “truth”). To judge information and people requires special intellectual qualities. I have long maintained that U.S. intelligence no longer possesses these qualities, but merely conforms to a predictable and self-serving bias. It is my contention that Americans have become psychologically captivated by a kind of consumer narcissism that muzzles security concerns about hostile infiltration of American government and business. Associated with this, we find poor border security, rampant illegal immigration and unchecked foreign involvement in the U.S. economy. If this were not an election year, with the Democrats eager to take back Congress, the issue of an Arab company running several U.S. ports wouldn’t have become a hot topic. Given the military applications so evident in computer technology, why didn’t Congress or the White House block Chinese acquisition of IBM’s PC division? And what of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s $18.5 billion bid to buy Unocal? And who in Congress raised a stink when a Russian company successfully acquired a majority share in Stillwater Mining Company (given the strategic importance of platinum and palladium)? Russia and China are strategic adversaries of the United States, opposed to U.S. commercial and military dominance. It cannot be wise to let hostile Asiatic countries, under the false flag of free trade and pretended amity, acquire important economic assets inside the United States. But that is exactly what has happened and continues to happen.

The strategic danger of Chinese involvement in the Canadian economy was long ago discussed in the Sidewinder Report, though Canadian officials have ignored its warnings (and Americans refuse to take any interest). According to Canadian intelligence and RCMP analysts, “the Chinese government is trying to gain influence on Canadian politics by maximizing their presence over some of the country's economic levers. To that end, they proceed initially to buy and/or legally set up a company in Canada that, once under their control, buys other companies and so on. An effective domino effect ensues that acts like a well-spun web or network at strategic points.”

Consumer narcissism refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem. The United States suffers from the same kind of penetration as Canada. But there is no outcry from Congress, or worried comments from the White House. And so, there is something false and self-serving in certain politicians taking notice when a United Arab Emirates company is about to acquire a British company that is already running several U.S. ports. We are surprisingly selective in our outrage. In my opinion, this outrage is theatrical and unserious. The senators who express the greatest concerns are precisely those who are clueless about Russian and Chinese penetration of the U.S. economy and government. Unconsciously influenced by consumer narcissism, American politicians refuse to disturb the delicate balance of the shopping mall regime. We aren’t allowed to discuss Russian and Chinese enmity. We cannot say that Russians and Chinese are preparing for a future war with the United States. America is now predicated on a fictitious version of reality fostered by advertising, pop psychology and entertainment culture. Politicians who seek oneness with the public mind have integrated this fictitious reality into their worldview. The self-deception involved in this process is so powerful that the Bush administration won’t even exonerate itself on the question of Iraqi WMDs because such exoneration would expose Russian strategic hostility to the blinding light of day.

Consider the following as Exhibit A: Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw, speaking before an intelligence summit in Alexandria, Va., recently said that Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction “were moved [to Syria and Lebanon] by Russian Spetsnaz units out of uniform, that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence.” Drawing from British, Ukrainian and local intelligence sources, Shaw compiled a report for the Defense Intelligence Agency and “others” within U.S. intelligence. “My report … was brushed off as ‘Israeli disinformation,’” he said. Even worse, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) exemplified the art and practice of the self-serving bias by complaining to the Secretary of Defense about Shaw’s behavior. How dare anyone outside the DIA discover vital intelligence information! Even more to the point, how dare anyone uncover Russia’s strategic intentions! According to Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Shaw, when the CIA got hold of his report on Saddam’s WMDs going to Syria and Lebanon, “They trashed one of my Brits and tried to declare him persona non grata to the intelligence community. We got constant indicators that Langley was aggressively trying to discredit both my Ukrainian American and me in Kiev.”

In the past two years I’ve becoming increasingly fascinated by something called narcissistic personality disorder. I believe that American society and politics has been overtaken by narcissism, and even the economy has been undermined. Over 25 years ago Christopher Lasch described America as “the culture of narcissism.” According to Lasch, “Our society is narcissistic, then, in a double sense. People with narcissistic personalities, although not necessarily more numerous than before, play a conspicuous part in contemporary life, often rising to positions of eminence.” This may be due to the narcissistic values promoted by salesmen and pop psychologists. The glorification of a false view of the self has had a destructive effect on the nation’s sense of reality.

In Paul C. Vitz’s fascinating work, Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship, we read the following indictment of latter-day intellectual integrity: “…the great majority of us are so reliably biased in favor of our own capacities and prospects that it is hard to find people who are truly realistic about themselves. Another example of this bias,” noted Vitz, “is the tendency of people to trust their own judgments in many situations in which it can be shown that objectively they have little basis for confidence.”

In a book titled Narcissism and Intimacy, Marion F. Solomon explained, “When there is narcissistic vulnerability, partners join together to protect themselves and each other from conflict. A collusive contract maintains the consistency of each partner’s perceptions. In that way, neither is forced to deal with overwhelming negative feelings about oneself. By masking pathology … narcissistic collusion often creates merely a … semblance of safety and security….”

It has recently been admitted by psychologists that psychotherapy is “a process of persuasion.” In that case, democracy is macro psychotherapy; and if the culture is narcissistic the national security debate is necessarily distorted. Furthermore, in this pathological process there is no therapist. A mass of self-serving, self-justifying nonsense overpowers reason and sinks the whole country in self-inflicted stupidity. In describing the inner workings of the narcissistic mind, Dr. Alexander Lowen wrote: “Thus, the ego may even deny some aspects of external reality as a means of defense.”

As the joke goes, “Denial is not a river in Egypt.” It is my contention that the decadence of American culture is detrimental to national security. Paul Vitz argues that the “humanistic model of human behavior” is to blame. An ideology of self-indulgence has risen up, and this ideology assumes that the consumer economy will continue forever. According to Vitz, “It certainly proved conveniently that, just as Western economies began to need consumers, there developed an ideology hostile to discipline, to obedience, and to the delaying of gratification.” Narcissism and selfish ideology depends on economic prosperity.

Consumerism feeds an unrealistic self love, which psychologists call narcissism. We should not imagine that the CIA has been unaffected.

The self-deception involved in this process is so powerful that the Bush administration won’t even exonerate itself on the question of Iraqi WMDs because such exoneration would expose Russian strategic hostility to the blinding light of day.

I have often wondered about this deafening silence myself.

One is reminded of the scientist who set his computer to only record data within an expected range. After several failed experiments, he finally found out what was wrong; his process worked several times better than he predicted, but the computer discarded these "bad" results. Once he reprogrammed the computer to be more open minded, he found the data he wanted.

Our intelligence community seems to operate like this scientist's computer: only looking for evidence of what they expect to find, and dismissing or discarding any evidence that suggests otherwise.

Over a hundred years ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle satirized the difference between these two methods of investigation in his fictional characterizations of the incompetent Inspector Lestrade and the open-minded, analytical and scientific Sherlock Holmes.

How sad that both our police and intelligence agencies still behave more like Lestrade than Holmes.

“Thus, the ego may even deny some aspects of external reality as a means of defense.”

This is off topic, but this is what made the first Matrix movie interesting. The main character was faced with living a comfortable normal life inside the matrix or living in the real world which was a dark, gloomy, horror.

One of the problems with the so-called intelligence community is the idea that there has to be a single answer. Given a piece of evidence, it may support any of several hypotheses about what the enemy is doing. Proponents of each hypothesis argue for their own interpretation, ignoring the possibility that they may be wrong.

While I was working as a university researcher, I once submitted a proposal to a defense intelligence agency that instead of this procedure, they utilize Bayesian analysis, in which one can maintain several hypotheses at the same time, changing the estimated probability of each depending on how well each is supported by a new piece of evidence.

Of course they wanted none of it. That wasn't the way things were done, and it still isn't the way things are done. There has to be one single answer. All too often, that single answer is based on internal politics in the intelligence agency. Don't push an idea that your superior doesn't agree with.

There is another vicious cycle at work as well which, if this author's analysis is true, will lead to our even quicker demise:

One of the reponses to a narcissistic culture is stoicism: an individual continues to do the honorable thing regardless of what the politicians or culture is encouraging.

But at some point a stoic has to wonder to what end his/her loyalty and sacrifice is directed.

If the political system, ethical system, moral system, and culture have become so degraded that they are of either no value or have become positively evil, then it behooves the stoic to join up with another system.

What may be true of the leaders of our intelligence agencies, may not be true of those working in the trenches. Every day individual analysts may come to good conclusions about the existence of WMD's, etc. but their reports never see the light of day.

At some point they will be discouraged and leave for careers that value their skills.

Then the intelligence leaders will no longer have to worry about suppressing embarassing reports as they will only receive reports with which they already entirely agree.

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