Boris And The Drinks

A conversation with my friend about Boris, the PM of UK.

My Friend:

I find it totally bizarre when Boris keeps saying even now that no rules were broken regarding the Partygate affair, and that he never attended any parties. It is now abundantly clear that rules were broken both after the Sue Gray report and now after the Police Report. Twenty people have been fined, but nobody is telling us so far whether the prime suspect, Boris, has been issued a fine or not. Still a secret that. Still the idiot Boris says no rules were broken in Downing Street even after people have been issued fixed penalty notices (FPN).

This is exactly like another idiot called Trump who keeps talking about the 'stolen election' even though he knows fully well that it is a total lie.

I don't know much of psychology, but this is just denial of facts when there is evidence flying against it in the face. What is it about these liars? Do they think the public are total fools, and simply denying it will somehow make it true?

I just don't get it. Clearly I am not as clever as they are.

My response:

Facts aren't a binary (Yes/no) for some people. They thrive on the grey. 

Their defense usually consists of a 3 step process:

1. No it (whatever they are accused of) didn't happen.

2. God forbid, if there is proof that it did happen, then the next response is "no, I didn't do it"

3. And if there is incontrovertible proof that they did do it, then the brahmastra "I never intended it". Boris is at step 2. He will move to the last step of expressing his intentions if proof of his drinks emerges.

Of course, we all know how important intentions are. And the great thing about intentions is that its existence can neither be proved nor denied. CCTV doesn't record intentions.

Thus one moves from the realm of incontrovertible proof of an act to the ambiguous realm of "didn't intend".

People from different walks of life follow this process. You just need to abstract their actions and words to see the 3 steps. 

Beware of anyone who focuses on intention rather than on action.

If you had chosen mostly wrong answers in an exam, would you have been allowed to pass it by just having expressed your fervent intention to choose the right answers?

But in life, our intention to choose right actions (without corresponding actions) gives us an enormous amount of bonus points that our exams never did!

Choose your intentions wisely, Sudha. And express them often. They give you far higher returns than actions..