MIT economist, Jonathan Gruber, admitted that he helped bamboozle the Congressional Budget Office about The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care). He spoke of how he helped pull the wool over the eyes of American voters whom he described as stupid. The admission was on video. The video went viral. You can Google it. If you are interested, here is a site I picked at random to watch the video. Click on Gruber .
As I watched the video, I saw Jonathan Gruber giving himself credit for getting The Affordable Care Act passed. He admitted that without deception, there would have been too much public opposition and that would have killed the bill. He rationalized that he had to deceive to help get the bill passed. Rather than appear contrite about this deception, Gruber appeared impressed with himself. He showed little in the way of empathy for the people whom he called stupid.
Based on this video segment, I viewed Gruber as: (1) self-oriented, (2) having an excessive “I know better than you” view, (3) ignoring the probable negative impact on people who were deceived, (4) overgeneralizing about a nation of people with a broad range of abilities. This latter point is important. By falsely degrading others, he falsely elevates himself.
Was I observing a business-as-usual approach to getting bills passed—a glimpse into insider thinking? Does this matter? Gruber said enough to give insight into how he views most people like you and me. His views are more important than a label.
Gruber's motivations and characteristics are his. Different people deceive for different reasons. However, it can be instructive to look at thinking styles.
True Believers
The video inspired me to dust off an old book and look for connections between Gruber and true believers. In The True Believer, Longshoreman Eric Hoffer shares insights about people who are part of fixed belief movements—people who believe they are in the right and anyone with a different view is wrong. True believers tend to be intolerant of others with different views. I see this intolerance in Gruber’s video.
People who hold extreme positions are typically impervious to information that can challenge or disconfirm their views. However, not all members of a group fall into that extreme mental trap.
Hoffer rightly cautions us to look at the variations among people within the same group. They may share a similar belief system in one or more areas. While some will be inflexible in their beliefs, others are more open to different views and willing to yield (perhaps begrudgingly) to facts. We'll have to see if Gruber recants some of the positions he has taken in this matter.
Hoffer’s advice is important when it comes to avoiding jumping to conclusions about any group member who shares some of the same beliefs with others in a group. However, that doesn’t mean that you must not assess the results of a group's actions or the actions of an individual member. It's in human nature to attribute causes to results. Hoffer would go along with that view.
There is a difference between acts, and patterns. In this case, does Gruber impress you as flexible and open to experience with regard to The Affordable Care Act? Does he impress you as operating with a fixed agenda where he believes that the ends justify the means? In the video, he gives you an answer. The answer is yes about his means-end approach to fooling people into thinking they were getting healthcare for less or for nothing. Is Gruber’s “means-ends” approach acceptable to you?
Gruber may believe that it’s easy to pull the wool over the eyes of people with oversight responsibilities and the public. That doesn’t have to be in your case. You may have see through the subterfuge.
There is power in questions that probe for specific answers. By asking questions of your elected officials, and insisting on verifiable answers, you are less likely to fall into the helplessness trap where you are uncertain about what is going on and end up getting information from people with stakes in an outcome. To ask meaningful questions may require that you educate yourself on prime issues that affect you, and on how to form non-threatening but probing questions. However, this proactive approach can have a quicker payoff than waiting for the next election.
Photo, The Empty Mill House, by Dale Jarvis, AreaOne Art and Design, Fayetteville NC
Reference
Hoffer, E. 1951. The True Believer. New York. Harper & Row Publishers.
© Dr. Bill Knaus