I feel honored to represent people who buck the system, whistleblowers, victims of illegal retaliation, etc. It takes a lot of courage to buck the system. We are social animals. People act differently in groups than they act when alone. We all want to fit in. But, sometimes we can't, or decide that we won't. Whistleblowers can appear to be misfits, because it is hard for people who really want to fit in to buck the power, the social or employment situation in which he or she finds him or herself.
In my experience in representing the people who have the courage to buck the system, my clients have to endure more than rejection from their former group. It seems that it is human nature to vilify the person who has the courage to differ. My clients suffer from the humiliation of lies and rumors spread about them. For instance, I have represented women in sexual harassment cases where the employer claims they engaged in sex at work, that they "asked for it," that they were the real harassers. In my own life, I have been part of an organization where those in power wrongfully accused my friends of trying to wrest power and overtake the organization to justify their treatment of those who differed with the ones in power. These situations were lies, but the people perpetrating the lies wanted them to be true, to justify their actions. Lies get spread this way.
Group dynamics are illustrate strange phenomena in human behavior. Being the descendant of Jewish German refugees from Nazi Germany, I have always been interested in group dynamics. How can a leader, an employer, the cool kids in high school, get others to engage in behavior as a group that would appall them if they had rationally engaged in such behavior individually? We so want to belong, that humans are capable of doing horrible things if the group sanctions them. That is what happened in Nazi Germany, in Rwanda, in the Spanish Inquisition. I wonder what I would have done if I were in the majority in one of these situations. I hope that I would have the courage to fight the status quo. Most people do not. If we had not had people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, where would we be as a society?
Here's to those who have the courage to do what is unpopular, to buck the leaders, to speak the truth. We need people with such courage. I am proud that I have the honor to represent some of the people who show this great courage. I hope that, if tested, I could count myself as one among them.
By leaving TLC you have demonstrated great courage to stand up against injustice and dishonesty and have bucked the system. They love to lie about people who buck them, get in the way of their demand for power and adoration. The group dynamics of that place breed people who have no courage and who are afraid. Any group founded and led by a narcissist (which it was and is) and which itself has become a narcissitic organization, does not value dissent or truth. The problem is that the narcissistic leaders of TLC expect and want to hear only messages that confirm their own sense of greatness. When those same leaders turn against its critics, the followers and hero worshippers will ignore anything that does not fit the grandiose image the organization presents or that differs from the stories the leaders tell. The alumnus of TLC gain ego-inflation from belonging and so, will bend the truth willingly, will buy into and believe the lies, in exchange for the sense of belonging. This is the case even when they know they are being fed lies and bullshit. Narcissitc organizations encourage this duplicity, even when they claim to want candor and honesty and even dissenting voices. When the narcissim spreads within an organization, those who challenege it threaten all who count on the narcissistic high. In such organizations, those who imperil the groups grandiosity are typically demoted, tossed out, demeaned, lied about or fired. The narcissistic organization becomes a morel universe of its own, a world where its goals, goodness, and means are not questioned, but taken as holy writ. The gospel according to Mr. Spence and his apostles. The ongoing self celebration of TLC and all things TLC fogs over how divorced from reality everyone has become. They have sold their souls to belong and to put pictures of themselves with their god (Gerry Spence) on the internet, on their web sites, in ads and on facebook. It really is a cult.
ReplyDeleteOh, and one other thing I forgot,Narcissitic leaders avoid constructive feedback and perceive it as an attack. They are hypersensitive to criticim in any form and don't seek out information but rather, selectively seize on data that supports their views, ignoring disconfirming facts. They don't listen but prefer to preach and indoctrinate. Such leaders typically stay isolated behind a wall of sycophants who will be supportive no matter what. Now that is TLC exactly!
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