The Prime Sin
“Troy, this circle is you.” - Brad Goodman
“My God, it’s like you’ve known me all my life!” - Troy McClure
Near the end of the movie Patton, as Third Army is driving to Bastogne, George C. Scott throws a temper tantrum in his headquarters. He yells at his entire staff for wanting to slow down in the face of wretched weather and tough fighting. Once his tirade is over, one of his senior aides comes over and says, “You know something general? Sometimes they can’t tell when you’re acting, and when you’re not.” Scott replies, “It isn’t important for them to know, it’s only important for me to know.”
I have no idea if the real George Patton said that, or if it was just a clever invention of the (Academy Award winning) screenwriters. The lesson is still vital: never believe your own bullshit.
It is a lesson easily forgotten. Success in any field can produce a heady sense of entitlement, the consequences of which can be grave. The number of pundits and columnists who are guilty of this is uncountable. That includes everyone from sportswriters with press passes to the heavily connected denizens of serious op-ed pages. The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Dallas Mavericks suffered from the sports equivalent earlier this year and recent political examples include the architects of the Iraq War and Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. Whatever you want to call it, pride, arrogance, overconfidence, etc, it comes down to internal delusion and dishonesty.[1]
It’s easy for a person or a group to succumb, either because there are too many people kissing ass, there’s no active search for honest feedback, or from simple intellectual laziness. Having inside information is another good way to warp your self perception. It’s awfully easy to get suckered in by the idea that since you know something other people don’t, it (and you) must be better. Everyone is replaceable; people who forget that can become dangerous to themselves and their work.[2]
If it’s allowed to go unchecked for too long, breaking free from believing your own bullshit can take a tremendous shock. Rehab people call those shocks “rock bottom” or “moments of clarity”, athletes simply call them “embarrassments” and politicians call them “landslides”. The only defense is to be willing to be wrong about everything.
It’s a hard discipline, and the worst part is that you can never be sure that you’re doing it well. In fact, if you believe you’re doing a good job, that’s all the more reason to dig harder and look for reasons you might be a little too pleased with yourself. It’s a vicious paradox and it’s not easy to keep up, but it’s vital.
Of course, I could be wrong about all this. This entire post could be one big, steaming slab of irony that somebody will toss in my face one day. Perhaps a smug, smarmy know-it-all like me, whose only real qualifications are a keyboard and access to the internet, shouldn’t be mocking other people’s bullshit. But if I’m wrong, at least my bases are covered.
[1] At least sports fans, neocons, and Deaniacs had their illusions shattered. Those foolish, ahem, media personalities, just keep on going.
[2] This is why the most durable and trustworthy sources of information (on-line, on television, in print, wherever) are the ones that honestly and constantly make fun of themselves.
