One of the fun/tragic aspects of teaching this topic
is that there's never any shortage of examples.
And in recent years we've had a rash of bad behavior from high status individuals.
So, taking a quote here from Tierney Lab,
a New York Times Publication a few years ago where Mark Sanford and
John Ensign ran into some trouble, politicians Sanford and Ensign.
Nicholas Wade writes, politicians are primates too.
He says, the recent travails of Senator John Ensign and
Mark Sanford are another reminder of how very unfairly,
from a primatological point of view, we treat our politicians.
A young male chimp spends almost every waking hour
plotting how to ascend the hierarchy of his society.
If he makes it to the top he has reached a height from which one cannot
easily descend.
Chimps leave the alpha position when deposed and
usually killed by their successor.
So why take such a risk?
For the sex, of course.
Political power still means sexual opportunity.
The trouble is many politicians don't seem fully aware of the subconscious
urges that contribute to their drive for power.
They spend years climbing the greasy pole,
come at last within reach of the juicy fruit that is their ancient primate reward
and then get their hand slapped for touching.
It's just unfair, like yanking away a rat's reward after it has run its maze.
So Sanford and Ensign, but we can keep on going down the list.
Eliot Spitzer, similar, just added a little hypocrisy to give extra flavor.
Tiger Woods, one of the more prominent examples from the sporting world,
ran into some major marital issues that have contributed
to the premature end of his competitive golf game.
When he came out of therapy, after having had issues in his marriage, he said
something that could've come straight out of the social psychology textbooks.
He says, I stopped living by the core values I was taught to believe in.
I knew my actions were wrong, but
I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply.
I never thought about who I was hurting.
Instead, I thought only about myself.
I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by.
I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to.
I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and
deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me.
I felt I was entitled.
Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them.
So Woods found his trouble with marital infidelity.
But that rationale is the rationale underlying many status-driven
violations that we see by people who have had power and become accustomed to power.
One last one, an ancient example just to underscore how long this has been going
on and how it affects even very accomplished people,
very worthy people, Michelangelo's David here, but
of course we're talking about David of the Old Testament.
Let's refresh on David.
So if you don't know anything about David,
you probably know the story of David and Goliath.
This is when David first entered the world stage as a shepherd boy
slaying the giant Goliath.
He went on to write many of the Psalms in the bible.
And he served as king of Israel for a very long time.
But he also had this incident with Bathsheba.
Do you remember The story of David and Bathsheba?
So Bathsheba was a woman he fell in love with.
He saw her bathing on the top of a building next to his.
And, unfortunately for him, well, first, he invites her to his house,
he has an affair with this woman and
unfortunately for her, she is married to one of his generals.
So, what does David do?
What is the David, who writes psalms and is a just king, what does he do?
He conspires to have his general killed.
He brings in the rest of his generals and
he says let's go attack the enemy next to us, put Bathsheba's husband
in the front and when the enemy starts responding, fall back to have him killed.
And in fact, these guys did this, Bathsheba's husband was killed, so
now he could have Bathsheba to himself.