What - or How - Was He Thinking?

That was the story on Yahoo! News yesterday, an analysis-type piece on what in the world must have been going through New York Governor Spitzer's head? How can such an intelligent, law-focused and law-enforcement aware man go and do something like that? Didn't he know he would get caught? Did he really think he could get away with it?

The analysis piece talked about how people like the governor (and a certain Mr. Clinton among many others comes to mind) have a defense mechanism called "splitting." You compartmentalize and split your life into segments. This has nothing to do with that or whatever. So you go do this when that side of you knows that you shouldn't.

Yes, Mr. Governor and the others are no different than the rest of us. They are just as susceptible to the foibles of human existance and the sins of human nature. They are tempted and tested and from time to time like all of us give in. I used to walk into my confirmation class at one point and ask how many hadn't sinned that day? A few would always raise their hand. To which I would reply, "Well, if you haven't just wait a minute and you will." (I know I could have said you just did, but that was too easy.)

Experience, not to mention statistics and news headlines remind us of this all the time. We can't escape it. There is one piece that I am waiting to hear, by the way. Any of you who know me will also know what I am waiting to hear from Mr. Governor or his office: Addiction- alcoholism, drugs, or sex addiction. If I don't hear it I will continue to assume it. Not out of spite or to be mean to Mr. Spitzer. On the contrary as Doug Thorburn often says in his Thorburn Addiction Report, to speak of addiction is to give a much clearer and reasonable answer to the question. Otherwise Mr. Spitzer is pretty clueless and a lot less capable than he appears.

Addiction takes over. It hijacks the brain- and hence logical and reasonable actions can disappear. It allows us to "split" and compartmentalize our lives. It gives us reasons and rationale for doing some incredibly stupid and sometimes immoral and illegal things. Even when we know better. This is not an excuse and no one should be let off the hook because of it. But at least it gives some direction and hope that something can be done about it.

In any case this is one more example of what we have seen many times- someone who has a strong opinion and fights against some sinfulness or evil may also be trying to fight it in himself. It may be an attempt to impose an outside control on what he knew he couldn't control himself. Again, no excuse, but a reminder of the many ways we fool ourselves.

By the way, after I finished this I was surfing and got to Live Science and found a good analysis of the situation. Very simply put, they say that the power that someone like Spitzer gathers is, in and of itself, enough to set them up for hypocrisy. Power corrupts! Here's some of the article:

Leader or not, do-gooders may be more smoke-and-mirrors than the real McCoy.

Research has shown people do the bare minimum in many respects, and so with morality, the appearance of taking the right action could be just as beneficial as actually taking that action.

"We've found far more evidence for moral hypocrisy than we have for moral integrity, at least among the samples of university students that we've looked at," said C. Daniel Batson, professor of social psychology at the University of Kansas, who studies the nature of moral motivation and moral hypocrisy. He noted he thinks his results apply to adults as well, including politicians and businessmen.

And since public opinion can make or break an elected politician, making moral charades can feel like a must, Batson noted in a telephone interview.
--LiveScience