Much has been said about the sad tale of Senator Larry Craig (R-ID). After all, cruising airport restrooms is hardly a good idea for anyone let alone a United States Senator. What the hell was he thinking? Of course, it is a profoundly hypocritical act coming from a man who otherwise shows such politically convenient contempt for his gay and lesbian constituents and fellow citizens.
Aldous Huxley once wrote "there is no such thing as a conscious hypocrite," so one must understand that Craig can't admit his hypocrisy because he simply can't allow himself to see it. In their new book, Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), the social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson write that cognitive dissonance occurs when our perception of ourselves is contradicted by the reality of our actions. That's why we work overtime to bury dissonance as "an engine of self-justification." (p.11)
I will let others psychoanalyze Craig's emotional and mental state and offer just two observations. First, megalomania is a crippling disease. When Craig first went public with news of his arrest for engaging in a mysterious set of restroom protocols with an undercover cop in an adjacent stall, he said that "a cloud hangs over Idaho." Excuse me? No sir, a cloud hangs over you and only you. Politicians-in-trouble need to understand that we don't buy their megalomaniacal, self-centered and completely fictional us-against-them narratives. I am sure that most of the people of Idaho want no part of that nonsense, Senator.
Next, Craig also makes the classic error of referring to himself in the third person all the time, as if to distance Senator Craig from, well, Senator Craig. Finally, he blamed everyone but himself, including the Idaho Statesmen newspaper that exercised extraordinary restraint. He would have found greater sympathy from Americans had he accepted his guilt, owned it in first-person terms, and blamed only himself.
Aldous Huxley once wrote "there is no such thing as a conscious hypocrite," so one must understand that Craig can't admit his hypocrisy because he simply can't allow himself to see it. In their new book, Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), the social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson write that cognitive dissonance occurs when our perception of ourselves is contradicted by the reality of our actions. That's why we work overtime to bury dissonance as "an engine of self-justification." (p.11)
I will let others psychoanalyze Craig's emotional and mental state and offer just two observations. First, megalomania is a crippling disease. When Craig first went public with news of his arrest for engaging in a mysterious set of restroom protocols with an undercover cop in an adjacent stall, he said that "a cloud hangs over Idaho." Excuse me? No sir, a cloud hangs over you and only you. Politicians-in-trouble need to understand that we don't buy their megalomaniacal, self-centered and completely fictional us-against-them narratives. I am sure that most of the people of Idaho want no part of that nonsense, Senator.
Next, Craig also makes the classic error of referring to himself in the third person all the time, as if to distance Senator Craig from, well, Senator Craig. Finally, he blamed everyone but himself, including the Idaho Statesmen newspaper that exercised extraordinary restraint. He would have found greater sympathy from Americans had he accepted his guilt, owned it in first-person terms, and blamed only himself.