The phenomenon has implications for business work groups, volunteer organizations, non-profit projects, military units, and environmental efforts, an interest of Parks’ coauthor and former PhD student, Asako Stone.
Parks and Stone found that unselfish colleagues come to be resented because they “raise the bar” for what is expected of everyone. As a result, workers feel the new standard will make everyone else look bad.
It doesn’t matter that the overall welfare of the group or the task at hand is better served by someone’s unselfish behavior, Parks said.
“What is objectively good, you see as subjectively bad,” he said.
The do-gooders are also seen as deviant rule breakers. It’s as if they’re giving away Monopoly money so someone can stay in the game, irking other players to no end.
I wish they had not used the term do-gooders a description which conjures up images of the mythical squeaky clean dweeb or dweebess. This is not simply a matter of someone being a workplace Mr. Rogers, but someone who is conscientious about their work and the style of their work strategy. If dealing with work is like a chess game – what moves facilitate the best results. Some workers – to include middle and upper management – only see the game in terms of immediate measurable returns. These do-gooders see work as an extension of who they are. They’re the ones that work smarter not just harder. if they can influence, by example, everyone’s work ethic and the way their coworkers think about reaching goals, its the acting out of the play-it-forward philosophy. It is a combination of altruism, moral philosophy and wise selfishness.
The resentment toward the intellectual altruist explains a lot about how most of our elected officials are the dumped down result of the wisdom of people who resent living up to a higher standard. James Inhofe (R-OK) is a good example. John McCain(R-AZ) who just won a primary is another. Inhofe and McCain tend to live down to mediocre standards which have endeared them to many constituents. The fact they have never accomplished much is not considered a deficient, but a credit which makes their followers comfortable. There is that old chestnut that an informed populace armed with a bright hard working legislator will persevere and protect democracy when in fact the much of the electorate is – not always – but frequently too insecure to vote in their best interests. These are the people that look at sharp legislator and dedicated defender of the Constitution like Russ Fiengold(D-WI) and see an elitist. This applies to business as well. Like the extremely wealthy that parlay their head start in life into even more wealth and see themselves not just as geniuses, but saviors of democracy.
Are Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) now officially idiots ? If all three got lost in their thoughts it only take a second for them to find their way back. Dire Prediction That Drilling Moratorium Would Be Worse Than BP Oil Spill ‘Failed To Materialize’
tattered angel tattoo. Related a good post on censorship – Proud Brothers, Do Not Fret
Anyhow, go ahead and horrify me, Brent Bozell, you great big hairy man.
The Culture and Media Institute recently reviewed the top pop songs from May through July. To say that hedonism is in the air is an understatement.
Hedonism is also in the underpants, the very underpants of America.
Of the 22 songs on the charts, a whopping 64 percent made at least one reference to sex, drugs or alcohol, or contained profanity.
Brent Bozell is a oafish old culture warrior. being a super culture warrior he has listened to every song, watched every corrupting TV show and movie, and miraculously emerged unscathed. His mission? To warn us all of the men kissing men and hot hot women sucking on their fingers in videos. All of these cultural influences from Beatles haircuts to Ann Margaret’s tight capris creep into your brain and turn you into a hedonist zombie.
Kitten with a Whip -1964
Scaring White People for Fun and Profit
Former Bush administration official Karen Hughes is having the same kind of awkwardness with her own record in this story. Ms. Hughes has now written a op-ed arguing that the planned cultural center in downtown New York City should be moved further away from the World Trade Center site, calling the plan to build there, especially contentious because, she says, quote, “it goes to the heart of who is to blame for the attacks of September 11th, 2001.”
An Islamic community center goes to the heart of who is to blame for the attacks of September 11th? If that does not make any sense to you, rest assured it probably does not make any sense to Karen Hughes either, because Karen Hughes also knows the imam behind the proposed Islamic center she is arguing shouldn`t be built or should at least be moved. In fact, she worked with him on Muslim outreach during the Bush administration. They, in fact, traveled together, side by side, to promote a moderate vision of Islam.
M’s Hughes and her former boss lied the country in a tragic and costly debacle in Iraq that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. How much worse could her former imam friend be.
Of course, there was also ACORN, a mostly minority community-based organization attacked as a group of criminal thugs based largely on cooked- up deceptively edited videotapes created by right wing activists. Be afraid — be afraid of the minority community-organizing group made up of poor people.
Now, there was the completely ginned up New Black Panthers episode. White people, be afraid of two whacked out guys who braid their beard hair and hung out outside a polling station on Election Day a year and a half ago. We dug up the old tape so you can be afraid.
And, also, don`t forget Shirley Sherrod, who, thanks to again to video-editing designed to be misleading, was portrayed as a racist Obama administration official — racist in that she was out to make sure white people didn`t get any help from the Department of Agriculture. White people, be afraid — be afraid of Shirley Sherrod.
After all of these other very recent chapters in the scare white people political playbook: “A,” we should have been ready for it, but, “B,” it`s quite clear that it`s time for a new one. So, the Ground Zero mosque controversy was born.
For those that have an amoral personality I highly recommend a career in fear. No matter how the economy goes there is always a huge demand – it is both depression and recession proof.
inkbluesky 
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